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ARE YOU GOING TO 
COLLEGE? 



LETTERS FROM A GRADUATE 
TO A FRESHMAN 



BY 

WILLIAM C. SCHMEISSER 



BALTIMORE 

EDWARD H. CURLANDER 

1913 






Copyright, 1913, by 
WILLIAM C. SCHMEISSER. 



©CU346990 
/Co/ 



ToAU 

Teachers and Instructors for their 
patience 'tDith US 

*Jhis book is dedicated 



HuBt a Woxh 

V/OU have this Httle volume before you as 
a result of the knocks received by the 
author while he was qualifying to be stamped 
as a college man. The incidents as here set 
down have been favorably received in the form 
of informal talks to young men. Therefore 
these letters may be of interest to freshmen 
and also give them a lift on their way. 

Further, father, mother and sister may de- 
sire to see a thing or two about college besides 
the commencement exercises. They are wel- 
come as is the graduate who wishes to see 
how college of today compares with that of 

yesterday. 

W. C. S. 



BTirat H^ttrr 13 

College a Little World in Itself. 

Suggestions Materalistic not Idealistic. 

Cut the Short Pants. 

College Man and Non-College Man. 

Which College shall I Attend? 

Athletic Scholarship. 

Father's Ability to Foot Bills. 

Athletic Prominence of a College, 

The Modern Athletic Machine or Business. 

»ttmh ICrtor ..... 42 

Dormitories vs. Fraternity Houses. 
Fraternities in General. 
Prep-school Man and Fraternities. 
"Sophs is Sophs." 

Sljtrb HJitttr 60 

Conduct as a Fraternity Man. 

A few "Do's" And a "Don't." 

College Hazing. 

Class Rushes or Fights. 

The Female Seminary as a Neighbor. 

Coeducation. 

The College Widow. 



3anrtl} ^tmr 83 

Shall I Take Part in Athletics? 
Athletics and the Nation. 
The Best Sport to Tackle. 
Medical Examination to Qualify. 
Getting a Fair Show for the Team. 
The Prep-School Stars. 
"Athletic Crazy." 
The Pot-Hunter. 

Jffiftli ajptt^r .104 

Studies and Athletics. 

Play a Clean Game. 

Be "Jonny-on-the-Spot." 

Proper Equipment. 

The Athletic Grafter. 

Make Every Play Sure. 

"Never Quit." 

A Good Winner and a Good Loser. 

Is the Other Fellow Always the "Mucker"? 

College Spirit. 

^txtl? ICftor 127 

Scholastic Standard to Qualify for a Team. 

How "To Beat" The Instructor. 

Getting Ready for Examinations. 

Why Head The Class? 

The Value of a Tutor. 

Relation Between Student and Instructor. 



fi>rtif«tl) V^tttBt 146 

College Politics. 

Social Functions At College. 

ttstytli airtor 163 

Captain Of the Freshman Eleven. 
How to Handle a Team as Captain or Coach. 
. The Physical Condition Of a Team. 



May I2TH. 
^Tf% EAR DICK : — It is needless to say that 
Irl I was surprised to receive yours of the 
second instant, and from it to learn 
that you expect to go to college next fall. My, 
how the years do roll around! It seems to 
me but yesterday, when I last saw you in short 
trousers. College! yes, that was the keynote 
of your letter, and to think that it is already 
a little over eleven years since I was a fresh- 
man at old Moorehead, 

So your father told you to write to me to 
find out "what's what at college?" Just like 
your Dad; he is a business man through and 
through; he believes in cold figures and facts. 
He told you that he never went to college, 
and, therefore, does not know the tricks of 
the trade. True to his business training, — he 
never takes on a new proposition without some 

[13] 



Are You Going to College 

preliminary investigation. A wise precaution. 
The more I allow that letter of yours to filter 
through my brain, the more it takes me back 
to the time when I was preparing for college. 
Like yourself, I also was the first boy in a 
commercial family to go to college, and knew 
nothing about college life, — its uses and tradi- 
tions. I had to feel my way along, and never 
was smart enough to get a few hints from a 
man who had been through the mill. My, I 
often think how easy it would have been for 
me to have made a failure of my college 
course. 

From the questions you fire at me, you 
certainly want a thorough consideration of the 
college situation, and you bet that the son of 
my friend Thomas Dawson will get the best 
I have on tap. So your father thinks that I 
have kept about as close in touch with college 
and its tricks, as anybody he knows. No 
doubt I know pretty well what the boys are 
doing, but that is not difficult when you have 

[14] 



First Letter 

several younger brothers, and the youngest is 
still in college. 

To tell you the truth, Dick, first after I had 
graduated and taken a position in the business 
world, I thought that it was "up to me" to 
leave childish things behind, and bury myself 
with my job. But somehow, I found myself 
sneaking around to the campus on Saturday 
afternoons after working hours, and on other 
days attending little college parties at night. 
After several years had passed in this way, 
I came to the conclusion that I was deriving 
a distinct benefit from playing with the boys, 
and helping them at their college work by 
handing out a few practical hints from time 
to time. 

In this way I have found out that the col- 
lege course of four years, as it is ordinarily 
given in the modern institution of learning, 
may be compared to a little world all in itself. 
The young man makes a beginning in his 
freshman class, and ends up with his senior 

[15] 



Are You G oing to College 

year, — only to be turned out into the cold 
world of business, or professional life, to be- 
gin all over again. My contention is, that if 
you learn to succeed in your college life, you 
will also succeed by applying the same prin- 
ciples in the world after graduation; that is, 
in the cold struggle for an existence. The 
college course, if made use of in the proper 
way, is a training school which will fit you to 
work more efficiently in your real career. 

My "Dos" and "Donts," I wish you to 
understand, Dick, are not to supplant, but to 
supplement the work of the professor or in- 
structor. They do the real hard work, by 
banging book knowledge into the boys. I shall 
only suggest a veneering, which, if the timber 
is of the proper quality, will bring out the 
characteristic effects which go to make up a 
sound and progressive manhood. Experience 
and observation have shown that this finish 
cannot be acquired by study within the four 
walls of a class-room alone. 
[16] 



First Letter 

When I begin my hints, young man, please 
wait until I finish before you cry out "Bosh, 
father and mother have told me that already," 
— or whisper "cut out that preaching." A 
little patience will show you that these few 
suggestions are given you purely from a ma- 
terialistic point of view. I shall not tell you, 
it is better to do this or not to do that, but 
I shall try to reveal to you why it is advisable 
to follow these hints. To be brief, I shall 
show what material benefit you can, and will 
derive therefrom. I do not flatter myself that 
the modern college man, in general, can be 
impressed by idealistic object lessons, but 
rather I am convinced that he is a materialistic 
being, pure and simple. He is not satisfied 
with a general statement as to what ought to 
be, he wants to be shown how much it will 
benefit him, before he is ready to adopt a 
particular code or procedure. A suggestion 
would probably strike home more speedily if 
[17] 



Are You Going to College 

we had time to figure out the value of its 
acceptance in dollars and cents. 

As I figure it, Dick, you will be a little over 
eighteen when you enter college, — a very good 
age. The boys, as a general thing, enter 
ranging in ages, anywhere from sixteen to 
twenty-one years, and I should say that the 
average age is about nineteen. It is not de- 
sirable for a boy to start in on his college 
course too young, as he is not mature enouga 
to get the full benefit thereof. On the other 
hand, if Fate sends a man to college aged 
much above the average, he may not be able 
to get in the proper swim with the boys. He 
has outgrown the turbulent spirits of youth 
and looks on life with more seriousness. 

Now that you qualify as to age, here goes 
for a few lines that may give mother a bump, 
if she has never thought about the subject- 
matter of my remarks before. My young 
man, you are about to take a step, the im- 
portance of which the average youngster and 
[18] 



First Letter 

his parents often do not realize. The fact is 
that you are going to take a step into deeper 
water than that which floats around in close 
proximity to the family bath-tub; you are 
going to be brought into contact with Life. 
You will be compelled to shift for yourself 
in many ways, at college. All through your 
primary and grammar school days, you have 
been under the watchful eye of pater and 
mater. Now, if you leave your home town 
you will not see your parents for weeks at a 
time, and even should you decide to take the 
undergraduate course in the college in your 
own town (and by the way, it is of the highest 
standard), you will be very much less under 
the parental roof. On being turned loose into 
college, you have a chance to learn to be inde- 
pendent, but at the same time, it is up to you 
to paddle your own canoe. 

Just a minute, while I give you a picture of 
what the average young man is when he 
reaches college. I will let you give him his 

[19] 



Are You Going to College 

physical proportions, but remember that he 
appears not fully developed. As for his dress, 
he may be attired in almost anything that 
looks like a coat, vest and trousers. Yes, 
those trousers! For heaven's sake, Dick, 
never let any of your friends go to college 
rigged up in short pants. If they can't get 
long trousers to fit them, let them wait until 
they grow into them, but do not let them take 
a chance at the campus in such a youthful 
make-up. Year after next, when you are 
leaning against one of those trees which have 
been planted by the class of '56, and are se- 
renely and peacefully sizing up the freshies 
as they march to the registrar's office, you will 
appreciate my timely warning. Ten to one, 
you will hear something like this, as Bill 
Jones spies a youngster in short pants : "Say, 
Bob, see who we have here? By gad, they 
will send them up with milk bottles before 
long; it's a fine chance we'll have to turn out 
a winning .foot ball team this year!" (Re- 
[20] 



F irst Letter 

sponse from Bob, a senior) "Ain't it so, 
Mabel? You should have seen our freshman 
class." (Here follows a long dissertation on 
said wonderful class). 

So arrives the freshman, equipped with 
clothes to wear and further burdened with 
the best wishes and the warnings of his par- 
ents to choose only good company. To this 
may be added a certain amount of coin, and a 
limited privilege to call for more. He comes 
into strange surroundings, having left his 
circle of acquaintances, a coterie about which 
mother and father have been fairly-well in- 
formed, — to enter into a new world. It is 
this fact of leaving old friends of childhood 
behind and breaking into a new field, only 
to leave it behind again on graduation, which 
has at times, inspired the discussion among 
college men, whether it is not more desirable 
to attend college in your own town where you 
can always have your college friends, or at 
least the majority of them with you after you 
[31] 



Are You Going to College 

graduate. Taking everything into considera- 
tion, I guess it's a toss-up, as there are only 
comparatively few men v^^hose life-v/ork al- 
lows them to settle permanently in one place. 
Those who follow certain occupations are 
bound to travel from place to place, and must 
learn to make new friends easily. 

Since you have made up your mind to go 
to college, I shall not take the time to discuss 
the advisability of going to college. The ad- 
vantages or disadvantages of a college educa- 
tion in its broad and general sense, can often 
enough be found treated in the current maga- 
zines. The net result of all arguments, pro 
and con, is that its utility must be determined 
by the circumstances of each particular case. 
What may be just the thing for Jack may be 
poison for Jill. There is one fact that neither 
you or any other young man, about to go to 
college, can get away from, — so you might 
as well put it in your pipe and smoke it. This 
is, that after you graduate, you must be pre- 
[ 22] 



First Letter 

pared to begin at the foot of the ladder, of 
whatever occupation you may pick out to 
follow as your life's work. Especially is this 
true of the man who decides to adopt a com- 
mercial career. You are better equipped in 
an all around way to take up your work than 
the average man — you ought to know from 
experience at college, how to do things in- 
telligently, but you cannot expect to know the 
fundamental tricks of a particular trade, when 
you are just beginning. It often is the lot of 
a graduate to start in on the same basis with 
a man who has been compelled to make a 
living right after leaving the grammar school. 
In fact, in many instances you will be in- 
structed to take orders from a boy who is 
younger by several years than you are. He 
may not, by any means, have the general 
mental and physical equipment that you have 
— but he will know more about a particular 
business than you do. Nevertheless, if you 
are of the proper stuff, you can readily, with 
[23] 



Are You Going to College 

the equipment the college has given you, learn 
quicker and outstrip your fellow-workers. 
You should know how the business methods 
can be picked up in the shortest possible 
time, — the grammar school man is still on the 
first rounds of the ladder of experience. 

With these few remarks, I turn to the first 

really important question, which confronts you 

and that is, "Which college shall I attend?" 

To answer that query properly for himself 

and to the satisfaction of his parents, it is 

necessary for a young man to remember that 

there are four factors which play an important 

part, in determining the response. They are : 

1st. Where did the relatives and friends 

of the young man attend college? 

2nd. The cost of college course and living. 

3rd. The athletic prominence of various 

colleges. 
4th. What can a college offer in the 
course the student desires to 
pursue? 

[34] 



First Letter 

As to the first factor, Dick, a close observa- 
tion of college conditions, will show that tra- 
ditions of institutions of learning are so strong 
that a boy who has been raised in a family 
where older brothers and cousins, not to speak 
of fathers and grandfathers, have gone to a 
certain college, will surely, nine out of ten 
times, follow in the footsteps of his relatives. 
Of course, it is only too natural that he would 
care to sit in the same halls ; sing and play 
on the same campus ; and live and sleep in 
the same atmosphere that the rest of the male 
members of his family and his friends have 
made use of. It is this same tendency to 
follow suit, which makes many of our young 
men "dog" the footsteps of their fathers, and 
become lawyers, doctors and what not, when 
as a matter of fact, they are not suited for 
that particular vocation. My observation con- 
firms me in the opinion that most young men 
at the age of eighteen or nineteen, do not 
know what they want to take up as their life's 
[25] 



Are You Going to College 

work. This is due, principally, to the fact 
that they have not studied the world enough 
to know what they are suited for, or what 
appeals to them. Not posted in this, they can 
hardly make an intelligent selection of a col- 
lege best adapted to their future needs. It is 
fortunate therefore, that our college courses 
now have the general tendency to an all- 
around development, which gives the student 
an opportunity to shift the makeup of his 
course a little when he becomes better in- 
formed as to his aim in life. 

Then, under the first head, there still re- 
mains another very potent force, a force that 
is nursed by the annual reunions, — a magnet 
which draws the alumnus back to his alma 
mater, only to send him out anew all over our 
country to sing the praises of his college. 
This interest and enthusiasm for the college 
and university, Dick, is cultivated to a great 
extent by all the progressive powers in col- 
lege, because it means financial support in 
[26] 



First Letter 

days of deficiencies, or in days of contem- 
plated expansion. No man wants to be inti- 
mately connected with a work or an institution 
which does not stand well in the front rank 
of its particular line of usefulness. Its in- 
significance becomes a reflection on the indi- 
vidual's capability and energy. So, the prac- 
tical result is that the older alumni put up the 
money for the buildings and furnish fuel to 
make the machine go at the proper pace, while 
the younger graduates see that the enrollment 
is steadily on the increase, and further, that 
their college has winning athletic teams. Few 
of you prospective college men know that your 
destinies have been settled almost from the 
day of your birth. How often at reunions or 
wherever several men get together for a few 
hours of social intercourse, have I not heard 
words of a trend as follows: "You boys re- 
member Charlie Wilson of the class of 1900?" 
"Sure." "I see in the evening papers that he 
has an addition to the family, and it is a boy." 

[27] 



Are You Going to College 

(Almost in chorus) : "Good, another ball 
player for Yale." These few words are in- 
dicative of the interest and the care with which 
the alumni watch young America, so as to 
turn a sufficiently large stream of hefty youths 
through the gate of their college. A little 
thought will show what a power of influence 
in its favor is extended all over our country 
by a college which has a faithful alumni. It 
may interest you to 'hear that much pressure 
is brought to bear, either directly or indirectly, 
on promising prep school athletes, so that they 
will enter the proper college. A good find in 
a prep school is immediately reported to the 
athletic departments of the colleges, or to 
some alumnus who is particularly interested 
in recruiting good youngsters. The major 
league scouts have nothing on the institutions 
of learning. This being so, it does not take 
an eagle eye to catch sight of athletic scholar- 
ships floating around, but each one is tied 
firmly to a string which leads to some one of 
[28] 



First Letter 

the bolder colleges. I have not followed your 
past records closely, but the mere fact that 
I have not heard your name mentioned at any 
of the college functions lately, tells me that 
you cannot be a prep school star. Therefore, 
an athletic scholarship has probably not been 
submitted to you for your inspection. 

Enough for that, and follow me, "Dickey 
boy," (I feel that I am beginning to know you 
better already), while I have a look at father's 
purse. You will probably discover before very 
long that this is a handy thing to have about 
the house, but particularly when said house 
is more familiarly known as college. Now in 
all seriousness, how much you can spend at 
college, depends entirely on your father's 
ability and willingness to foot bills. On the 
other hand, how much a man must spend de- 
pends on how few necessities of life he needs, 
and whether he can get a scholarship or not. 
There are three kinds of scholarships : first, 
those that require a competitive test ; secondly, 
[29] 



Are You G oing to College 

those that are handed out by the college 
authorities to young men who cannot afford 
to pay tuition, and thirdly, the above men- 
tioned athletic scholarship which goes to the 
man who can do a hundred yards in ten-flat 
or better. The cost of tuition in the various 
colleges is about the same, and not very high. 
Of course, where a person's means are lim- 
ited, it is easier to get along where the average 
student has less to spend. At some colleges, 
the social life is far more expensive than at 
others. Then again, if a young man wants 
to work his way through college, it is probably 
at the higher price institutions that he can, 
with more ease, find some congenial work to 
do. So you see, "the shoe must fit the foot 
that is to wear it." But why bother ourselves 
in your case about cost of college and living. 
A mercantile report of your Dad which I saw 
the other day said something about Credit A- 1. 
Do not understand me to imply that it's up to 
you to make it too hot for the goose (in this 
[30] 



First Letter 

case a gander) that lays the golden eggs. Not 
for a minute. All I mean to say, is that as I 
know your father, I am sure that he wants 
you to go to college ; further he wants you to 
go right. Then I'll add, that you ought to go 
on a reasonable allowance. So much for the 
"where-with-all" at this time. This factor 
does not play a very large part in the selection 
of your college. 

Now for the factor which brings to an in- 
stitution its large undergraduate body. That 
is the athletic prominence of a college. We 
may almost call it the undertow which often 
draws a boy against his will, if he does not 
take a firm foothold in the sands of common 
sense. An institution of learning may have 
the best course of study, as well as a faculty 
superior in every way, and yet it cannot com- 
pete with a college which has an inferior 
course, but is strongly represented on the 
athletic field. Athletic teams and sport equip- 
[31] 



Are You Going to College 

ment are the very best advertisement for a 
university. 

Earlier in my letter I have said something 
about athletic scholarships. I do not believe 
that these would have been fostered, if it had 
not been for the fact that the colleges with 
athletic prominence were in a better position 
to attract the young prep school men, than 
their less victorious rivals. After persuasion 
did not bring about the desired result, some 
bright individual conceived the idea of tickling 
a boy's vanity and also his pocket-book by 
saying to him, "Here, we will give you your 
tuition free." At the present time compara- 
tively few people know that young Smith is 
getting a good foundation laid for his life's 
work. But the chances are, that at least five 
hundred thousand readers of the Sunday 
morning papers will remember that Arthur 
Poe made a ninety yard run and won the foot- 
ball game for Princeton a few years ago. 
Again, the public knows when Foster of Har- 
[32] 



First Letter 

vard strains a tendon; but there are hardly a 
hundred well-balanced mortals who can tell 
you who won the Inter-collegiate debate last 
year. 

Why Dick, you may go through college 
and never get an idea of what college ath- 
letics really mean these days. Only a few 
years ago a manager representing one institu- 
tion, say "A," would write to a neighboring 
seat of learning for a friendly game of 
"what not" to take place on a Saturday sev- 
eral weeks off. "Come up to our grounds to 
play us and we will pay your expenses to get 
here" would write said Mr. Manager. Reply 
from college "B" would read : "Sure, we will 
come, we take for granted that game will be 
played in the afternoon." So everything was 
fixed. On the day of the game the students 
and faculty wandered out to the field and 
applauded the good plays. 

Now let's see the difference. In many of 
the colleges today they have a graduate man- 
[33] 



Are You Going to College 

ager on a fixed salary; because it was found 
that the student manager could not do justice 
to his studies and at the same time carry a 
team through its season successfully. Let me 
give you an outline of this athletic machine, 
or to be accurate, — ^business. I call it a busi- 
ness, because it takes a proper mercantile or- 
ganization to keep the boys from getting 
swamped and into financial difficulties. 

As the theory is, that the athletics are to be 
run by the students, we generally find that 
each undergraduate class elects one or more 
representatives, as the case may be, to repre- 
sent it on an athletic board. Sometimes if an 
institution has graduate departments, they are 
also represented on the governing board. In 
addition to these factions, no up-to-date col- 
lege forgets its graduates, as they generally 
have a wider business experience, and at the 
same time, if properly picked (with accent on 
the "picked") can also be of financial assist- 
ance when the season has not panned out well. 
[34] 



First Letter 

So two or three of these men are also found 
on the board. 

This board after it has properly organized, 
selects business managers for the various 
teams. I use the plural, because it takes a 
student manager with at least two or three 
assistants for each team, to do the work effi- 
ciently. Of course, the graduate manager who 
is on a salary, has the supervision of all the 
teams; and steps in with his experience and 
advice, when the student manager — who gen- 
erally serves only in his senior year — is up 
against a tough nut to crack. 

Take a look at a crowded stadium some 
autumn afternoon, when a large game is being 
played, and you will see that it takes a good 
treasurer to look after the thousands of dol- 
lars that pour in the gates in a short space of 
time. Do you wonder that it is proper to 
have him and the ticket sellers bonded? The 
athletic board must also have its finance com- 
mittee, as some teams do not support them- 

[35] 



Are You Going to College 

selves, and must be held above water by the 
more remunerative ones. In other words, the 
scholastic season must show a profit in ath- 
letics. 

After each team has its managers, it must 
have its captain, and last, but not least, its 
professional or graduate coach. To assist 
these we also generally find an advisory com- 
mittee for each sport. 

The arranging of a schedule takes months 
of hard work, and is often started six months 
before the contests come off. Contracts must 
be drawn up, and sometimes arbitration com- 
mittees called upon, before the terms as to 
gate receipts can be finally adjusted. Then 
the professional coach — his terms must be 
met, or taken down to figures within reason. 
By the way, you may just as well sink it into 
your head right now, that if you want a win- 
ning team, you must have a good coach. All 
closely contested games are these days won 
from the side lines. Experienced athletes 

[36] 



First Letter 

know that, and, therefore, are willing to sign 
up the modern coaches at a high figure. Good 
coaches are almost born, not made ; and, there- 
fore, as scarce as the proverbial hen's teeth. 
How often do you find men like Murphy, 
Donovan, Courtney and "Hurry-up" Yost? 
They are few and far between. 

The progressive athletic organization has 
also its publicity branch. There are the stu- 
dent reporters ; but if they do not measure up, 
then interviews must be arranged with the 
editors of the leading dailies, so that the col- 
lege is properly "spaced." The large stadiums 
have been built and interest must often be 
paid on the money invested ; hence the gradu- 
ates and friends all over the country must be 
kept interested, so that they will attend the 
games. 

Then again, when a first class team goes on 
a trip away from its home grounds, it almost 
rivals Barnum and Bailey's circus, or a train- 
load of opera singers. "Day coaches! not on 

[37] 



Are You Going to College 

your life," says the head coach. "We must 
have parlor cars or our one hundred and 
ninety pound full-back may hurt his punting 
leg." Later, when the squad gets to the hotel 
and has been quartered, each man alongside 
of his private bath, we again hear the cheerful 
head coach: "Say, manager, what has be- 
come of those bottles of drinking water that 
were to come down with us? These 'pups' of 
mine want a drink before supper, and this 
water is not fit to drink." Yes, this is to show 
you, if you do not know it already, that these 
young athletes are cared for like the modern 
race horse. Old Maud S. had nothing on 
these so-called "pups." "Foolishness" — you 
say, — "not on your life," respond I, who have 
coached a good many teams myself. Yet 
wait ! I must not wander off into a lecture on 
coaching, possibly more of this anon ; but now 
I am trying to help you pick your college. 

This organization of college athletics, nat- 
urally, makes a great impression on the prep- 

[38] 



First Letter 

school boy. It is true he does not see the 
inner mechanism, but he knows that all the 
best men gravitate to the larger colleges and 
the best coach, and are treated with respect 
and made comfortable there. He has learned 
that he cares more to play before a large au- 
dience, than a sickly gathering of spectators. 
In short, Dick, he wants to be an actor in a 
big production. This attitude of mind is per- 
fectly human, and certainly the best policy to 
pursue if athletics was the object and end for 
a man going to college. It, however, should 
not be, and I know is not with you. So I sug- 
gest the best rule for a fellow to follow is 
first to pick out the college, which offers, in 
the best way, the course he cares to pursue; 
and then, should there be several of an equally 
high standard, which is often the case, — then 
select the one with the best athletic equipment. 
It just strikes me that if your parents 
should happen to read this letter, and "I do 
not care if they do," — they will probably smile 

[39] 



Are You Going to College 

at the fact that I am taking up college from 
the point of view of the course of study, last. 
But my observation has been that a boy first 
gets the idea of college from his relations or 
friends. Next, he begins to inquire whether 
father can afford it. Then, it strikes him that 
athletics are interesting; and lastly, he begins 
to think of what course he wants to take up. 

Now, in your case, Dick, after reading your 
letter over again, I gather from it that you 
have not determined on any particular course. 
You say you want something in the way of a 
general education, and then again, should you 
fall in love with some profession and desire 
to follow it, you want to be in a position to 
turn your course in that direction. What you 
need, my boy, is something like a blanket in- 
surance policy; or a medicine that cures all 
ills for twenty-five cents ! You want a college 
course to cover all professions and also a com- 
mercial course. The truth of the matter is, 
Dick, you had better do a little more investi- 

[40] 



First Letter 

gating for the next few months, and I shall 
keep my eyes open for something new. But 
I can promise you that we will get you started 
in the right direction by fall. 

I have a few other college things that you 
ought to know about, but I guess this letter 
will hold you for a while. 

My regards to the folks and remember that 
anything that I can do for the son of Tom 
Dawson, is a pleasure to 

Yours sincerely, 

Harold James. 



[41] 



June 8th. 
'"Q EAR DICK: — I read from your last 
'1^ letter that you have decided to take a 
general collegiate course, with the idea 
of eventually going into your father's busi- 
ness. You do not believe that you are suited 
for a professional career. Well, it takes all 
kinds of people to make the world to go along 
properly, so I guess you will do for a business 
man all right. All of us are here to do some 
work, and if we do that which is assigned to 
us faithfully, we'll get our credits when the 
time comes around. 

And so you prefer to go to Hastings Uni- 
versity. A very good selection for your pur- 
pose. I congratulate you and also Hastings. 

You ask me whether it is better to live in 
the college dormitory, or in a Fraternity 
House? Now since you want me to call an 

[42] 



Second Letter 



ace an ace, and a spade a spade, it devolves 
upon me to tell you that you are not, at this 
time, in a position to choose. I do not know 
whether you are acquainted with the fact or 
not, but no man can get into a fraternity un- 
less he is asked to, by an insider. So I would 
not bother about living accommodations until 
just before I entered college in the fall. If 
any of your friends ask you about your living 
arrangements, just talk dormitories. Of course, 
when it comes to dormitories, — and in fact 
anything at college, — you will find that the 
upper classmen always have their pick. 

I also notice that you say that mother wants 
to help you to get fixed. Please give mother 
my best regards and tell her for me, that it 
is far better for you to pick out your own 
living accommodations, and then after college 
has been in swing for a few weeks, she can 
drop in and pay you a visit, to approve or 
disapprove of your arrangements. Let "Pa" 
and "Ma" give you the financial limits, and 



[43] 



Are You Going to College 

then you go ahead, Dick. Of course, mother 
feels that she ought to look out for her boy, 
and only justly so, but unfortunately, the 
average college man does not care to see the 
sign of apron-strings about the campus. I do 
not know of any other class of men that is so 
much influenced by small things. It is a pity 
to see how often bully good men handicap 
their position in college by not being coached 
up on the importance of small things. 

Your mentioning the Fraternity House 
brings me to the subject of Fraternities in 
general. I am not going to give you a long 
historical lecture on Fraternities, Dick. Nor 
am I going to take up the discussion of whether 
Fraternities are detrimental to democratic col- 
lege life or not, — ^because, although I am my- 
self a "frat" man (this abreviation may not 
meet with favor at Hastings, — inquire), I con- 
fess that I am unprepared to say whether or 
not college life would be better off without 
the fraternal influence. Possibly if I keep in 

[44] 



Second Letter 



touch with the boys a few years longer, I may 
be able to make a conclusive deduction one 
way or the other. Those that are opposed to 
societies argue that they form cliques in the 
college life of a university and that, therefore, 
they should be removed. I know of cases 
where their influence has been harmful and 
this fact made me observe more closely. Fur- 
ther, there are institutions where no Fraterni- 
ties are allowed with the result that select 
eating clubs and similar organizations have 
practically taken their place. It seems to me, 
from what I have read in history and politics, 
and what I know of the make-up of man, as 
studied in the laboratory of everyday life, 
that men or women of similar characteristics 
and habits, or engaged in the same activities, 
will sooner or later drift towards each other, — 
thus leaving those that do not attract them, 
to find persons who have a mutual interest. 
There is a good old proverb which reads: 
"Birds of a feather flock together." I know 



[45] 



Are You Going to College 

that from time immemorial, there have been 
social cliques; and I am inclined to believe 
that we shall have them for some time to come. 

Now, the practical question for you, Uick, 
and all prep school men, is how to handle this 
mystery called a Fraternity. For the present, 
it is with us and very much so. The first 
thing that interests a youngster, is a fancy pin 
which he spies on the vest or shirt of a college 
man. Inquiry reveals to him the fact that it 
is a fraternity pin; the insignia of a secret 
organization, which possesses a large house 
into which only a limited number of men are 
asked to enter and join, as members. Grad- 
ually he studies the pins of the college men he 
meets, and begins to wonder which pin he 
would prefer to wear. 

On entering college in the fall, you will, in 
all probability, be asked to visit some of the 
Frat houses so that you may meet the boys. 
Then while you are taking an inventory of the 
inside of the Fraternity House, you yourself 

[46] 



Second Letter 



are being closely inspected by the members of 
the Society. Entertainments of all kinds arc 
given so as to impress the freshman or prep- 
school man. Older Alumni will shake you by 
the hand, and let you know what a wonderful 
Society they belong to. How it extends from 
the North through the South, and clear from 
the Atlantic to the Golden Gate of the Pacific. 
Further, you will gaze upon books like "Who's 
Who In America," which will show you (just 
casually, of course) that twenty-five well- 
known Senators and thirty-five men of letters, 
not to speak of all the prominent college ath- 
letes, are members of the particular Fraternity 
whose guest you are that evening. To be 
frank with you, my boy, you will hear of all 
the merits of the Fraternity to which your host 
belongs, and in some cases also, — I am sorry 
to say — the demerits of the other Frats, who 
may be competitors for your hand. 

I use the term "competitor," because it is an 
established fact, that several Frats are gener- 



[47] 



Are You Going to College 

ally after the more prominent material in the 
freshman class. There are three classes of 
men who are candidates for Societies: first, 
men who have stood out prominently in the 
prep schools as athletes or otherwise ; secondly, 
men who have peculiarly desirable social con- 
nections, and lastly, the good, reliable man who 
has prospects of making good and who is a 
gentleman. 

The same human characteristic which draws 
a boy to the colleges which have a fine lot of 
athletes, also coaxes those same boys into the 
Frats to which the athletes belong. Hence, 
you can readily see that the thing for the 
Frats to do, is to land the leaders and athletes 
first, leaving their attention as far as the dark 
horses are concerned, until last. In some col- 
leges the competition in the selection of men 
has become so keen, that the Fraternities no 
longer wait until a man reaches the institution, 
but they go into the prep schools to pledge or 
bind him. This, Richard, I consider a very 

[48] 



Second Letter 



harmful practice and should be abolished. 
Some of the college authorities have taken 
this matter in hand. They have laid down 
the rule that no man can be bound to any 
Society until after his Freshman year. In 
other institutions, the Frats themselves have 
done away with this cut-throat competition, 
by forming agreements under which no man 
can be approached before he has been in col- 
lege a certain length of time. This regulation 
is just, equitable and desirable for both the 
Fraternity and the candidate for admission. 
For the world of me, — I cannot see why prep 
school pledging is not done away with in all 
colleges. Is it possible that certain faculties 
are not in close touch with social conditions 
in their colleges, — or is it that in certain col- 
leges the weaker chapters are afraid to stand 
on a footing of fair competition? I am in- 
clined to the latter conclusion, because where 
the Frats get together, action on the part of 
the faculty is not necessary. 



[49] 



Are You Going to College 

I can see you shake your head now, Dick, 
and say, "What difference does it make if a 
man is pledged before he gets to college"? 
Bear with me a minute, and I will put you 
straight. I have written to you before, that 
when a man goes to college, he is generally 
compelled to pick up an entirely new set of 
friends. It is another important fact that 
when he makes a Frat, his time is so occupied 
with his society brothers, especially if he lives 
in the Society House, that he makes few 
close friends outside of this circle. The third 
fact, — and a very significant one which my 
observation of boys has assured me of, — is 
that every boy who goes to college is influenced 
by his environment. The men that he travels 
with, will either "make him or break him." 
Of course, Dick, we can find a good old steady 
brick anywhere, but the best we can do is to 
call him the exception to the rule. 

I further know that a boy who pledges 
himself before reaching college, cannot know 

[50] 



Second Letter 



the members of a Fraternity well enough to 
determine whether they will be congenial to 
him or not. And this first, because he cannot 
determine what boys will be members of the 
Frat with him, in his freshman class; and 
secondly, because he must live on the college 
campus before he can tell what standing the 
members of each Frat have in the college com- 
munity. 

So you see how you prep school men can 
draw an awful pig in a bag, in the way of 
college chums. You may not discover your 
mistake until after you have been in college 
six months; and, of course, once in a Frat 
you can never change horses. Keep your eye 
open for the Society which treats you cor- 
dially ; but whose members are not too aggres- 
sive, and anxious to pledge you. Do this, and 
you will not live to regret a hasty action. 

Then again, some boys draw a "lemon" and 
never know it themselves. I say "themselves," 
because they are carried on and their character 



[51] 



Are You Going to College 

moulded by the company which they keep, 
without their getting a chance to study the 
general effect. The faculty will see the result, 
and all the other boys at college will know it, 
only to hand it along to friends in the home 
town. "Harry Crawford"? (with a smile) 
Oh ! he is all right, the only trouble is, he got 
in with a fast crowd at college." Next comes 
an investigation by father, provided father 
can believe it of Harry, — and Harry is either 
called home, or transplanted to another col- 
lege. H father does not get wise, then Harry 
will more than likely drift along from bad to 
worse. 

Why I know you won't believe it when I 
tell you, that I have seen brothers, who have 
belonged to different Fraternities in the same 
college, come out entirely different, — although 
raised by the same parents and sent through 
the same prep schools. I repeat, his friends 
at college will either "make or break a man." 

The other day I was talking to a prep school 

[52] 



Second Letter 



boy, along the line of the hints in this letter, 
and he told me that there was a report circu- 
lated in their school, that it was necessary for 
a man to accept the first bid which he received 
from a Frat, or he would not get another. 
He further informed me that on account of 
this bug in their ears, several of his friends 
had immediately pledged themselves. I simply 
looked at him and said "what fools these 
mortals be," meanwhile thinking of a police 
magistrate friend of mine, who had said to me 
not so very long before: "Mr. James, I see a 
good deal of life here, and I have, after due 
consideration, come to the conclusion that 
three-quarters of the people are fools, while 
the other quarter are damn fools." Just to 
think, Dick, that boys of not less than seven- 
teen years of age would swallow a story like 
that! Then again there is a sad side to this 
fraternity story, which we can not get away 
from ; and that is, that in some of our colleges 
the Frats are not playing fair. They are either 



[53] 



Are You Going to College 

cheating the prep school boy, or themselves. 
Time will tell. 

I do not want you to get the idea, Richard, 
that I am opposed to your joining a society. 
Not for the world ! I am too hot a f rat man 
myself; but I have tried to show you the 
danger of pledging yourself to any society be- 
fore you enter college. Should you be in- 
vited to any "rushers" for new men, or what- 
ever they may be called, I would advise you 
to accept all that come your way. Go to them, 
and gather all the information you can, so as 
to place yourself in a position to judge intelli- 
gently, if you are asked to join. Ask ques- 
tions of any of the men, and they will be only 
too glad to answer them; and should you, by 
reason of your inexperience, get too close to 
matters which they are not supposed to di- 
vulge, then you will find yourself gently turned 
into proper channels. 

Further, it is very important for you to 
dress properly. By that I mean, nothing ex- 

[54] 



Second Letter 



treme in the way of styles or finery, but simply 
neat and above all things, clean linen. You 
may say "that ideal clothes do not make the 
man." This is very true, Dick, but the first 
impression that a man makes, counts for a 
great deal. You see there will be a great many 
men in your college, just like you, who will 
not be well known to the boys. You may be 
invited to a Frat function, and if you go there 
looking like "sloppy weather," you may not 
get another chance, or at least, not for some 
time, to show the chaps that you are more of 
a man than your clothes indicate. The sopho- 
more may not look his best when he makes a 
quick change from bed to chapel ; but he is 
just the man who expects a freshman to look 
immaculate as far as his linen is concerned. 
A student of human nature once remarked : 
"Pigs is pigs." After a year at college you 
will ejaculate : "Sophs is Sophs." This deli- 
cate phrase can be interpreted into "Sophs are 
hunters for trouble." 



[55] 



Are You Going to C ollege 

The prominent characteristic about the 
esteemed sophomore, is that he can always 
discover something wrong about a freshman. 
To him, the first year man is too fresh and 
needs some of his freshness taken out; or he 
is too quiet and needs some ginger. My ob- 
servation has been that this turning point 
between freshness and too quiet, is a very 
difficult thing to find. It's generally a case of 
"when in doubt swat the freshman." So at 
fraternity functions, or wherever you come in 
contact with the upper classmen, treat them 
respectfully and civilly, but be not too fresh. 

I happened to be in a home one evening, 
when a matron who was very popular socially, 
gave her final instructions to her daughter, 
just before she formally presented her to the 
world. Her words were short and to the 
point: "Helen, remember, always be neat, 
and talk, talk, talk !" I will say to you, Dick, 
"Always be neat, and talk, but not too boldly." 
The boys do not care to entertain a stick, but 

[ 56 ] 



Second Letter 



an unpardonable sin, is lack of respect to older 
class men. 

By the way, should you, as you are making 
the rounds of the societies, run across a very 
elaborate house equipment, please do not for- 
get that all you see costs money. Now, with 
Fraternities, as with everything else in life, it 
takes money to make the mare go. Especially 
when said mare must carry a lot of college 
boys who go on a party every once in a while. 
Parties often mean broken crockery, etc., etc. 
Then again, I have on some evenings wan- 
dered into a society's room and found every- 
thing very peaceful, only a half hour later to 
suddenly find numerous freshmen and sopho- 
mores in violent combat. Inquiry on my part 
as to the cause of this sudden storm would 
produce the laconic reply "One of those darn 
freshmen started something." Net result: one 
supposedly-to-be improved freshman, which 
cost the Society fifty dollars in furniture. 
Well, in short, it costs to run any institution, 



[57] 



Are You Going to College 

and you will find that membership fees in 
Fraternities are generally capitalized on how 
much of a splurge the boys want to make. 
Do not forget to find out the price. Good 
things come high, but there is no sense in 
paying more for them than they are worth. 

While you are being courted or rushed by 
the various Societies (should you be so for- 
tunate as to make a favorable impression), 
you will surely be informed of the fact that a 
certain Frat is only a local ; do not be alarmed 
at this revelation. A local is nothing more or 
less than a society which is confined to the 
college which you are attending. All other 
Fraternities are national in scope, and are sup- 
posed to have chapters or units over the width 
and breadth of the land. Of course, it's a 
great talking point, and it makes a great im- 
pression to think that wherever you go you 
will be hailed by the name of "brother," but 
remember, that it is more important for you 
to get in with a clean, healthy crowd of fel- 

[58] 



Second Letter 



lows in college, than to build on prospects. 
Frats like all social organizations, are bound 
to have some individuals or groups of men 
within their make-up who are not just up to 
the mark. My suggestion is Dick, that you 
take your time and make a thorough study of 
society conditions at Hastings before you 
make your final decision. Keep your eye on 
other nice boys in your class and see which 
way they go ; they will be your friends in the 
senior class. Naturally, if you had any broth- 
ers in certain Frats their connection would 
play some part in your deliberations. Then, 
when you have picked the crowd that you 
want and they want you, go in and become a 
real rattling good frat man, and feel proud of 
your selection. 

Good-night, Dick, and do not forget to re- 
member me to mother, and that curly-headed 
sister, Carrie, of yours. Also tell the boss that 
I am going to drop into Philadelphia soon, to 
smoke one of those black boys with him. 
Yours sincerely, 

Harold James. 
[59] 



October 25TH. 
^P| EAR DICK: — I have been so busy, 
THj since my return from that httle business 
trip to Europe, getting matters up to 
date, that I had almost forgotten that a young 
man by the name of Richard Dawson was still 
clinging to this terrestial ball. So you have 
been a college man for over a month, and say 
that you feel pretty well broken in! I can^t 
just figure out what you mean by "broken in." 
Peradventure, do you wish to convey the idea 
that you are getting on as far as your studies 
are concerned, or have the sophomores broken 
you in? 

And you "have gone and done it." To think 
that after all that good advice I gave you, you 
have tied up with a Frat within a month's 
time of your arrival on the campus. Well, 
your arguments on the facts at hand are good, 

[60] 



Third Letter 

and from your selection I can say that you hit 
the bull's eye, even if you did not take a long 
aim. Let me congratulate you and add, 
"Lucky Boy." 

My last letter to you, Dick, gave you a num- 
ber of hints as to how a Society should be 
handled by an outsider. Now that you are an 
insider, I will ask you to lend me your ears a 
few minutes, while I give you a few observa- 
tions on how you should conduct yourself as a 
fraternity man. (By the way, whenever you 
write me, I take it for granted you are ready 
for some more hints or you would not write). 
In a general way, the student body of a college 
where they have Fraternities, is divided into 
two classes : Frat men and Non-Frat men. 
The Non-Frats are again divided into men 
who would like to get into a society; and men 
who have been asked, but who for financial 
reasons, or others, do not care to join. Now 
the fraternity men are more at liberty to act 
and do as they please, than the other students. 

[61] 



Are You Going to College 

Everybody knows that they are not being con- 
sidered as possible candidates for membership 
in a Society; they are it. They can go up to 
any cHque of fellows and "butt in" at all times 
and almost any place, without being thought 
ill of. On the other hand, consider the Non- 
Frat man. He knows that there are moments 
when he is not wanted, because a bunch of 
men who belong to the same Frat want to talk 
over some private or secret matters. If he is 
of a refined temperament, he will hesitate to 
mix in too freely with a bunch of men, if 
mostly frat men are present. He is afraid that 
his harmless familiarity and good fellowship 
will be misinterpreted as a sort of planned 
aggressiveness on his part to get in. Of course, 
the man who has been asked to join is in a 
freer position than the out and out non-frat 
man. The former has the satisfaction of the 
stamp of approval ; the latter feels that he has 
been weighed and found wanting, or has not 
even been taken up for consideration. Dick, 

[62] 



Third Letter 



you will at times wonder why some of the 
men who you were very close to in prep 
school, suddenly treat you with more reserve. 
The reasons are, first, that they do not care to 
be accused of courting you; and secondly, 
your new interests take up a good deal of the 
time that you formerly had for them. Above 
all, remember that your actions are absolutely 
unrestricted. It is up to you to make the ad- 
vances. If a crowd of you boys are together 
and a "non-frat" is in the neighborhood, draw 
him into your crowd by a friendly word, or a 
healthy slap on the back, by the way of a good 
morning. Do not wait for him to speak first. 
Give him a cue so that he may know that he 
is not butting in. This hint I give to you, 
my boy, because you can save many a deli- 
cately tempered man a painful moment; and 
at the same time it will stamp you as a gentle- 
man. The proper attitude in this matter it is 
very difficult for a freshman to acquire, who 
immediately on entering college joins a Frater- 



[63] 



Are You Going to College 

nity. I believe I know what I am talking 
about, as yours truly did not join a Society 
until his senior year, and he is glad of it. 

Now to get down to the cold material side 
of this matter, — to the dollars and cents side, 
as the writer promised to do in one of his 
former letters. Tell your friends that all the 
good men do not get into Frats, and that some 
of the doubtful ones do. It pays to give a 
fellow the glad hand. Remember, that it is 
almost as essential to have friends in college, 
as when you get out of college into the struggle 
for a daily existence. Friends in college will 
vote when the class elections come around; 
friends will back the college team of which 
you are captain, and make you a success. 
Friends will declare you the most popular man 
in college. Friends will not let the faculty 
suspend you when you foolishly break some 
rule ; and finally, — friends will stand by you 
when you are out of college and need a job ! 
My experience is, that in the daily scrap to 

[64] 



T hird Letter 



make all ends meet, and fill the pay envelope, 
Frats are entirely forgotten. It's a case of 
friends and deliver the goods. 

Having handed you that lengthy "do," your 
tutor in principles will give one "don't" be- 
fore leaving this ever-interesting subject of 
college Societies. Are you ready? Well, do 
not begin to consider your Fraternity of more 
importance than your University. The minute 
you put college activities aside for those of the 
Fraternity, the secret Society becomes a dan- 
gerous undercurrent against college spirit. 
Never have your dinners, conventions or other 
functions at a time, when your members 
should be at practice with the athletic teams. 
Push along the good name of the University 
first, and you will naturally find your Frat in 
its proper place, to wit: the front line. Stop 
pushing and it's time to get out your robes 
for a funeral. 

One thing strikes me about your last epistle, 
my dear "freshy," and that is, that you do not 



[65] 



Are You Going to College 

breathe a word about hazing. I am willing to 
bet even money, that they have had you on 
the rack, or you would surely have been telling 
us about the funny things which have been 
handed out to the other fellows. Why is it 
called "hazing"? You know, that it never 
occurred to me to inquire where this practice 
originated. There is a fine chance for some 
freshman to do a little historical investigating 
in connection with his laboratory course in 
hazing. No doubt by this time you can tell 
us very vividly how it feels to be tossed in a 
blanket by a wild lot of Sophs, — especially 
when they do not care whether they drop you 
or not. And the seat of your pants! — Why 
is it, I wonder that a strenuous and often- 
applied dose of paddles, — on the part of the 
anatomy which Nature has provided for the 
training of bad children, — seems to be one of 
the approved ways of instilling into a fresh- 
man the proper amount of respect for upper 
classmen? Possibly it is, because so many of 

[66] 



T hird Letter 



our sophomores have only recently been 
taught to obey father, by a similar process of 
dusting. Well, the only thing to do, is to take 
it, and get even with the freshman next year. 
Of course, if you want to make it interesting 
for someone else besides the sophomores, then 
abide your chance and light into one of your 
inquisitors. This will rank you ace high with 
the seniors, who are supposed to be too digni- 
fied to do any hazing; but who are always 
hanging around to see the fun. Remembei, 
that at your best, you will only be able to get in 
a few good licks before you will be promptly 
grabbed by an overwhelming bunch of sopho- 
mores. And then, — yes, then it means more 
paddles. These bands of wild Indians, called 
"Sophs," do not scout around singly or one 
by one ; but like the real red-skin aborigines, in 
"sixes and sevens" they pounce on a fresh- 
man, or two, when these have carelessly wan- 
dered away from the rest of their caravan. 
Then the unfortunate ones are put through 



[67] 



Are You Going to College 

the "gauntlet" (See Cooper's "Last of the 
Mohicans," page 123) with more or less pain- 
ful results. A second thought gives me a 
"hunch"; why could the modern hazing not 
be a survival of the old pioneer days? But 
Dick, I give you this flash to work on some 
winter day, when you are no longer a fit sub- 
ject in the laboratory of hazing. 

Now the trouble with you freshmen is, Dick, 
that you have no organization. You hardly 
know each other, and further, you are afraid 
to make a mistake and jump into a Senior or 
Junior, instead of a Sophomore. They all 
look alike to you, but there is really a very 
great difference. Of course, the senior class 
has promised the faculty that they will dis- 
courage all hazing this year. They had to do 
that, or one of the Sophs would have been 
fired last year. But a little underground 
study of human nature, will reveal to you 
that the theory of most seniors is, that the 
easiest way to break up hazing is to fortify 

[ 68 ] 



Third Letter 

the freshman class against any attacks on the 
part of the Sophomores. This theory was 
advanced by one of our ex-presidents, when 
he conceived the idea that the best assurance 
of peace is to prepare for war. You will find 
a few bolder seniors always ready to tutor you 
how to get the freshmen thoroughly lined up. 
Remember that there are two adages well 
known to all fighting men. They are: "All 
Gaul is divided into three parts," and "In 
Unity there is strength." In your case the 
three parts of Gaul are the Freshmen, the 
Sophomores and the Faculty. Line up the first 
part against the second part, and then look 
out that the Faculty is somewhere else when 
the fight is about to begin. I was present 
once at one of these class tilts, when every- 
body including Juniors and Seniors (the sup- 
posed-to-be police), became so thoroughly in- 
terested in how the Freshmen were wiping up 
the ground with the Sophomores, that one 
gentleman of the faculty (who had wandered 

[69] 



Are You Going to College 

too near the line of skirmish), was suddenly 
mistaken for a sophomore, and promptly sat 
upon by several Freshmen. You ask me what 
happened? To tell you the truth, I did not 
stop to see : — I was a Senior ! 

In all seriousness, Dick, I know nothing 
which cuts out that hazing, on the part of the 
Sophomores, quicker than a well-organized 
attack on them, by the freshman class. This 
is easy enough, if you do not forget that there 
are nearly always more men in the freshman 
class than in the Sophomore one. The weed- 
ing out process has not begun so early in the 
college year. Your banner motto must be "In 
Unity there is Strength," and your battle cry, 
"Let's get together and bump them" I Re- 
member, I am keeping my eye on the evening 
paper to get the latest reports. 

To bring this hazing and bickering between 
the two lower classes to an end, and thus 
allow everyone to settle down to study, the 
practice has been adopted in many of the col- 

[70] 



T hird Letter 

leges, of having one rush or fight, and then 
calling things quits. I do not just remember 
what is the trick at Hastings (please tell me 
the next time you write), but the fight for the 
old canon; the rush at the bowl; and the 
various cane rushes, not to speak of the water 
contest of one of our Western colleges, are 
fixtures in college life. These mix-ups are 
now worked out on a plan so that it can be 
officially recorded whether the Freshmen or 
the Sophomores are victorious. The Seniors 
are generally the officials. Most of these fights 
or rather pulls and pushes, are harmless and 
the boys get off with a black eye or some torn 
clothes. But as I do not know what you are 
up against at Hastings, I will give you a 
warning against a general cane rush. By a 
general cane rush, I mean one in which both 
the entire freshman and sophomore classes 
participate. Fortunately that kind of a rush 
has been modified in most of the colleges ; but 
every once in a while some bright Freshman 

[71] 



^ 



Are You Going to College 

suggests going back to the general rush. I do 
not want you to be one of these who, on 
account of inexperience, would make such a 
proposal ; hence these lines. 

The whole object of a cane rush, is for each 
of the two classes to try to get as many hands 
as possible on a cane, and keep them there 
until time is up. The class with the highest 
number of hands on the cane, wins. Formerly 
each class used to line up about five yards 
from its representative, who held the cane. 
That gave each class five yards to travel be- 
fore the cane was reached. Time-keepers 
were appointed, and when the Senior, who 
had been selected as official, blew a whistle, 
the two masses of humanity made a rush for 
the cane, which was held by two men, each 
representing a class. The rules of the game 
allowed that the men of one class could push 
and pull their opponents away from the cane. 
At the end of five minutes the class who had 
the most hands on the coveted stick, won. 

[72] 



Third Letter 



This description may not sound awe-inspiring, 
but after the first onslaught, the centre men 
were invariably thrown on the ground in this 
free-for-all fight to hold on. Then the out- 
siders piled on top in their eflforts to get at 
the cane, which they hoped to reach by putting 
their arms through some crevice. Have you 
ever been on the bottom of one of those old 
mass plays when everything went through 
right tackle, only to meet the entire team of 
the opponent coming the other way? No? 
Well Dick, I am sorry, because that was just 
about as much like a cane rush as a ladies' 
afternoon pink tea resembles a Jeffries-and- 
Johnson prize fight. I can answer for you 
that you would have called "down" with that 
all-the-wind-knocked-out squeak, immediately 
after you had touched the ground on one of 
those tackle plays. Just imagine your agony 
then, if you had been compelled to stay under 
those twenty-two men for five minutes ! Now, 
have you got that? — Then multiply by ten, 



[73] 



Are You Going to College 

and you will get the pressure per square inch 
which the heroes on the bottom of a general 
cane rush had to standi Another thing that 
made it worse, was that in falling, by reason 
of the pressure on all sides, the men were 
unable to get themselves in an uncramped 
position- The time of five minutes was en- 
tirely too long, and of no avail to either class, 
as very few hands change after the centre 
men are thrown, or have thrown themselves 
to the ground. Fortunately, I was never 
present at any of the old cane rushes, when 
men were suffocated outright. But I have 
helped to untangle the mass after the whistle 
has blown; and found men on the bottom of 
the pile unconscious, still clinging to that cane. 
Others, had their hands so gripped on the 
cane, that they were sort-of paralyzed, and it 
took a good deal of rubbing before the fingers 
could be released. We also have found a few 
broken ribs and ankles, but they do not count 
in college. So, gradually, the time length of 

[74] 



T hird Letter 

the cane rush was modified to about one 
minute. This, you will find, is ample time to 
give a fair supremacy to one side or the other. 
Further, the classes now generally pick out 
about twenty men on a side, to represent them 
in the contest. Also, they are lined up farther 
away from the centre men, so as to reduce 
the sudden impact. The speedy men get to 
the cane first ; thus the pile builds up gradually. 
So you see that a cane-rush has also developed 
along scientific lines. 

Now, Richard, if Hastings is booked for a 
cane rush this fall, and some bright young, 
inexperienced supposed-to-be harmless fresh- 
man thinks that one minute is not long enough 
for a cane rush, then hand him a few of the 
above "dope." If that will not act as a proper 
sedative for his overbubbling college enthu- 
siasm, then tell him for me, "it does not pay." 
If he asks why, answer thou, "because the men 
who are picked for a cane rush, always in- 
clude the athletes of the classes; and a few 

[75] 



Are You Going to Collegn 

broken ankles, if nothing worse, may put one 
or more of your college teams out of the run- 
ning for the championship." 

Just as I had dipped my pen in the ink to 
round out my above remarks, my eyes fell on 
a picture which is hanging over my desk. A 
friend of mine took it just after the Army and 
Navy foot-ball game several years ago. By 
the way, it was that game when Charley Daly 
played the whole game for Army. Yes, we 
had made the trip from New York in a private 
car; there were a half-dozen men and as many 
girls. The reason I mention this, is that some 
of these girls were "fem semmes." Exactly, 
that is the expression, "fem semmes." Pos- 
sibly you have not met this kind before, so I 
will drop the college slang, and introduce them 
as girls belonging to a female seminary. Why 
is it, that fate always seems to place a female 
seminary just within walking distance of a 
men's college ? Do not be afraid, Dick, if you 
happen to be a ladies* man, that I am going 

[76] 



Third Letter 

to warn you to stay away from a place where 
a peach crop is being rounded out to be 
shipped into the world. Not on your life! 
I have sense enough to know it is easier to 
turn back Niagara Falls than to keep the 
average youngster from having a look into a 
female seminary. As a friend of mine said 
not long ago : "It simply ain't no use." Of 
course, some night you will make your way 
over that three miles between Hastings and 
Chester Seminary. You will try to attract 
some of the girls to the windows by whistling. 
Probably with success, but if you fail in the 
first half hour, then send somebody back to 
college for a mandolin. When he has walked 
three miles going and three miles coming, then 
strike up a few notes on the instrument; this 
will have the magical effect. A serenade al- 
ways brings results. It did 'way back in 
Shakespeare's time, when the lovers knew how 
to play a mandolin, and it does now when you 
boys only try to play it. Yes! the village 

[77] 



Are You Going to College 

clock will be striking eleven, when a window 
opens just an inch and the following note is 
dropped at your feet: "Dear Boys: Please 
stop that noise; Mrs. Gray, the chaperone is 
watching us too closely. Will meet you at 
the bridge tomorrow at four." No signature. 
How interesting! You will then start home 
over those three miles and vote your evening 
a thorough success. Total result: six miles 
for some; twelve miles for the fellow v/ho 
went after the mandolin ; one sweet note, and 
no prepared lectures for the next day for any- 
body. — Yes, but it was a romance; it was 
an experience, the kind that sounds fine to 
younger brothers and cousins when you get 
home for the Christmas holidays. 

Now the interesting thing about all this is, 
that one day a learned man, I believe it was 
William Penn, got the idea that the best way 
to keep the boys at college, and not have them 
out so late, would be to bring the girls right 
where they would see them all day long. 
Hence, we have co-education. 
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T hird Letter 

Never having attended a co-educational in- 
stitution, I am not in a position to say v\^hether 
they are of a social or economic advantage. 
Further, all of my inquiries have borne little 
fruit. One thing I do know, however, and 
that is that the very men who have told me 
that it is a nuisance to have girls in the same 
college, and that they never bothered about 
them, have been the very ones who have mar- 
ried a girl that they have met in college. 

Dick, there is no harm in a "fem semme," 
provided she is a nice girl and most of them 
are ; but a hint that preparing your studies for 
the next day should be rule, and girls the ex- 
ception, is not exactly out of place here. You 
also should know that some girls, or some 
that were girls, stay around a college town a 
long while. These are not fem semmes any 
more, although they may have been. Unfor- 
tunately for them, they seem to have become 
fixtures in the place, even though they are 
perfectly willing to move away under the pro- 

[79] 



Are You Going to College 

tecting arms of some Senior. I mention this 
by way of introduction so as to tell you in a 
few words, before closing tonight, what hap- 
pened to a son of a dear friend of mine. He, 
the boy, started off to college and all ran 
smoothly until he went back for his sopho- 
more year. James, we will call him for a 
better name, began writing home in the fall 
of his second year, about a wonderful girl he 
had met in the college town. He admitted that 
he had seen her during his freshman year, 
but now he was beginning to realize that she 
was the best ever. Then letters followed to 
father to the tune of "I feel like stopping 
college and getting to work." Father, who 
had also been to the same college, began to sit 
up and take notice. He thought matters were 
getting too hot for comfort, but he still tried 
to persuade the boy to finish his college course. 
Finally, when his efforts were about ex- 
hausted, father wrote to James that "if you 
must you must, but please write me all about 

[80] 



Third Letter 

the girl and who she is." The response was 
full with details. Father read the letter over 
several times very carefully, and then with a 
sigh of relief wrote as follows: 

"Dear James : 

I have received yours of the in- 
stant, and read the same with great care, 
and find to my surprise, that the lady 
you mention is the same girl which I 
almost fell in love with, when I was at 
college. Let me know when you are ready 
to start for home. 

Your Loving Father." 

Needless for me to say, Dick, that James 
finished his college course. 

In conclusion, I want to thank you for your 
kind invitation to see one of the large games 
in November. I think I can make it. 
With best regards, 
Yours sincerely, 

Harold James. 

[81] 



J^aurtij Hotter 

October 28th. 
EAR DICK: — It was a surprise to me 
to hear from you so soon after my 
last letter. But you are right in saying 
that you want to begin properly posted and, 
therefore, must ask me questions now. You 
excuse yourself for taking up so much of my 
time; no excuses necessary, my boy. Mrs. J. 
and myself often decide on a quiet evening 
at home together, and then I, after being 
comfortably fixed in an arm-chair, take down 
my pen and just scribble. 

In answering your queries, and framing up 
my hints, I become so interested as to forget 
all about business cares. As I go along, I 
gradually find myself alongside of you in col- 
lege. Some of the professional men I know 
give their minds a rest by reading several 

[82] 



Fourth Letter 



trashy novels in succession. Every person 
according to his inclination, — mine at present, 
is chatting with you. 

So you have never taken part in athletics, 
and you do not know whether to begin now. 
The boys have all been, for several weeks, 
suggesting that you ought to try for one team 
or for another. Further, all of them seem 
to think that the particular game at which 
they have made a success, is the best sport 
to play. I used to think the same way, Dick, 
but after I had taken a turn at nearly all of 
them (not all, seriously, however) I came to 
the decision that a man can become interested 
in almost any game. Some of them are more 
strenuous than others, but as someone must 
win, there is spice in the whole list of them 
from "pitching nickels" to "running quarters 
under fifty seconds." Of course, some sports 
are more suitable to one person than to anoth- 
er You know my favorite one, but as ray 
advice is to be unbiased, it would be improper 



[83] 



Are You Going to College 

for me to discuss the merits of the respective 
sports. 

By all means go in for some form of ath- 
letics. If you have never tried, you do not 
know whether you can deliver the goods or 
not. Further, athletics belong to a well- 
rounded college education. There are things 
which you can learn on the athletic field, 
which you can never even meet with in the 
classroom. First you learn to obey. By that 
I mean you are taught discipline. Some great 
general said, "No man is fit to command until 
he has learned to obey." Well, if you are 
going into commercial life, you certainly ex- 
pect to reach the point some day when you 
will have men under your control. Now is 
the time, while at play, to learn how to be a 
good executive. Then there will be no fear 
of strikes in Dick Dawson's plant, for he 
knows how to handle his men. 

Also, you must not forget the fact that 
"all work and no play makes Dick a dull boy." 

[84] 



Fourth Letter 

You cannot do your best work when you do 
not keep yourself in good physical shape. 
Your blood must circulate so as to keep your 
gray matter up to a keen standard. I am not 
afraid, Richard, that you will not get some 
exercise; because all up-to-date colleges now 
have a prescribed course in physical culture. 
That is good in its way, but it lacks the ele- 
ment of contest which keeps a fellow inter- 
ested. 

Another very potent reason why I advocate 
athletics, is that they have a national signi- 
ficance- If my recollection serves me cor- 
rectly, it was General Wellington who said: 
"The battle of Waterloo was won on the 
football field at Eton." Their national sig- 
nificance was brought home to me most 
strongly when not so many years ago, I heard 
a lecture on the Spanish War. The lecturer 
showed us a picture in which were grouped' 
the men who had led our troops through the 
Cuban campaign. The majority of them bore 

[85] 



Are You Going to College 

familiar names as athletic generals. It was 
only a logical step from athletic sports to the 
grim sport of war. They had learned to han- 
dle men at play; the experience had stood by 
them when the nation called for troops and 
commanders. 

We do not need too large a standing army, 
Dick, our Navy and our geographical posi- 
tion saves us from that. But we should have 
our young men trained to obey, so that when 
the time comes and we must have an army, 
the good, old regulars with the state militia 
as a nucleus, can be expanded into an effici- 
ent fighting body. 

A captain in the militia, — and by the way, 
an old athlete asked me just before the late 
Mexican troubles, "What do you think of 
having every young man go through a course 
of military training, say for three months?" 
At first I laughed at him and told him that 
our people would not stand for a standing 
army like those of the European countries. 

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Fourth Letter 



"Think it over," he said, and I did. The 
result was, that I now believe it would be 
good for every young man to have a little 
touch of discipline instilled into his make-up, 
and also to learn to handle a rifle. This mod- 
erate training would be a great help as a 
national defense, and yet, our country would 
not be threatened with the unhealthy social 
supremacy of the military set, which is bound 
to grow up with a standing army. Nor would 
the three months' training in any way harm 
a young man's business or professional pros- 
pects. When younger, I used to think that 
in case of war, our men could leave their 
plows to flock around the flag and put our 
foe to flight. In the last ten years my obser- 
vations have been that, all things being equal, 
a machine, whether it be an athletic, a polit- 
ical or a military one, if instilled with the 
proper spirit, — can win nine out of ten times 
from an untrained aggregation. So at present, 
as we have no military training, college ath- 



[87] 



Are You Going to College 

letics must in a way, do for us what the 
former does for the youths of Europe. 

When it comes to picking the sport for you, 
I guess the best way to do, is to get at it by 
the process of elimination- Now I know, 
although you have written nothing about it, 
that you naturally incline to what is known 
as one of the major sports in college. In this 
column, according to the college you attend, 
you will find: Foot-ball, Track Athletics; 
Base-ball; Lacrosse and Rowing. If you ask 
why I know it, then I simply respond, "Be- 
cause nine out of every ten men want to be 
where the crowds are, and they are with the 
major sports," I do not blame you; but re- 
member it is harder to make good on a team 
where one hundred and fifty men are trying 
to squeeze into never more than twelve posi- 
tions, than on an aggregation where only fifty 
or less are in the squad. On the other hand, 
it shows the proper spirit for a man to be 
willing to buck up against large odds. Then 

[ 88 ] 



Fourth Letter 



when he comes through the winner, he can 
spell it with a large W. 

My advise for the treatment of your par- 
ticular case, is to tackle the first sport on the 
schedule. If you are absolutely disqualified 
for that by the coaches, then try some other 
sport; but for heaven's sake, do not get the 
idea in the first few practices, that you are 
absolutely no good. Do not try one sport a 
month, and then switch over to another, just 
like some of the men do when they get out into 
the business world. They have not the qual- 
ity to stick at it. I have seen men jump from 
law, to medicine, to business in as many years, 
and wonder why they did not get along in 
any line. Remember, what was said in an 
earlier letter about the four years of college 
being like a Httle world in itself. The char- 
acteristics and experience that bring success 
in college, are the same that must be used in 
the fight for a living when you get; out. You 
must begin all over again, and work your way 



[89] 



Arc You Going to College 

through to the top. Of course, the odds are 
greater against you later on, but the second 
fight is always easier than the first. 

Before giving you some idea of how to be 
a candidate for a team, I must warn you 
against taking part in any sport as strenuous 
as foot-ball, without having subjected your- 
self to a medical examination. That may seem 
superfluous to you, but you owe it to your- 
self, and to your college team to take a test. 
If students insist on taking part in a sport 
when they are physically unable to stand 
the strain, then we will have occasional fatal- 
ities. Please do not, however, run to your 
family physician, because he has probably 
never seen much of athletics, and is, there- 
fore, too careful making you believe, from the 
start, that you are an invalid. Most of our 
large colleges now have a medical advisor, 
who was or should have been an athlete him- 
self. His youthful desire to win games has 
been properly tempered by his medical exper- 

[90] 



F ourth Letter 



ience. In a word, he knows when you can 
play, even if he does discover some thumping 
somewhere. He disquahfies extreme cases 
from participating in violent games, and sug- 
gests something moderate to build up a youth 
without knocking out his nerve from the 
start, by putting him on the total disability 
list. 

I might say in passing, Dick, that a coach 
must also know what the constitution of each 
man can stand. I, for myself, refuse to drive 
a man to the limit, if I have not the O. K. of 
a medical expert. This business of winning 
games at all costs is wrong. At the same 
time, consider the temptation a professional 
coach is under to do this very thing. If he 
does not win this year, it may mean no job 
for him next year. 

After you have passed your medical exam- 
ination, inform the captain of the team, which 
you are going to try for, that you would like 
him to put you down as a candidate. Then 



[91] 



Are You Going to College 

follow instructions closely, and begin to think. 
By that I mean whenever the coach gives you 
a hint, do not try to follow his instruction 
blindly; but figure out "why" he told you to 
do a certain thing, and "how" he told you to 
do it. As soon as you have had on your uni- 
form a day or two, buy yourself the latest set 
of rules covering the sporH you want to learn, 
and thoroughly familiarize yourself with them. 
You will be surprised, Dick, to find how many 
boys at college try for a team, and have never 
seen a copy of the rules- It is a case of hit or 
miss with them, they are never absolutely 
sure whether they are right. 

When you have studied over a play and 
cannot understand it, do not hesitate to go to 
your coach or captain and ask for an explan- 
ation. Either one will be only too glad to 
assist you, because experience has taught them 
that to have team-work, it is essential for ev- 
ery player in the squad to thoroughly under- 
stand each move. 

[92] 



Fourth Letter 



If at any time, Dick, you get the idea that 
you are not getting a fair show for the team, 
then do not give up in disgust, or go around 
among your friends and begin to talk about 
the coach and the captain playing favorites. 
You will always find a minority which will 
pat you on the back, and tell you that you are 
a much wronged man. These fellows, take it 
from me, have never gotten in very close 
touch with the men who are running the team, 
and, therefore, do not know what reason the 
powers in being have for preferring one man 
over another Whenever that not-getting-a- 
show bug begins to tickle you, then wait for a 
chance when the coach is not too busy, and 
get next to him for a heart-to-heart talk. Al- 
ways give the captain and the coach a chance 
before you begin to express yourself adverse- 
ly to them. My observation, in and out of 
college, has been that a great deal of worry 
and useless trouble is caused by people going 
off half cocked and drawing unwarranted con- 



[93] 



Are You Going to College 

elusions. If folks would not misunderstand 
each other, my what a happy lot we would 
all be I Have a frank talk with your coach 
and in ninety-nine out of a hundred times, he 
can tell you exactly why the other fellow is 
pushing you aside and slipping by. If you 
will only consider for a minute, you will see 
that a coach would be cutting off his nose to 
spite his face, if he did not play fair. A 
coach must win. Can you possibly conceive 
any easier or more logical way for him to turn 
out a successful team, than by using the best 
players? If your coach has had a record of 
winning teams, you can put it down as a 
certainty that he picks fair. 

The trouble seems to be that a coach can- 
not in justice to his team, or has not always 
the time to make public why one man is pre- 
ferred to another by him. You see, Dick, a 
man may be a star, and the minute you turn 
him loose, he may spoil all team play. Another 
example is, that the coach may have two 

[94] 



Fourth Letter 



young players on the side lines, both of them 
equally good men; when the time comes, he 
will pick one man without hesitation, and send 
him into the fight. The result may be instant 
uproar by fellow members of a Fraternity that 
their man, being an older class-man, should 
have a chance- If you were to saunter around 
to the coach's room that evening for a little 
chat about the game, and you would finally 
open up with: "Say, Jack, please tell me why 
you put Welford and not Reddy in the game 
this afternoon? You told me only last week 
that you did not know which was the better 
man;" the reply that you would get would 
probably be "Confidentially, Dick, as far as 
playing goes, there is nothing to choose be- 
tween them ; but in the last five practices I 
had to resort to a coach's last card, I began 
to watch, not so much the new players, as 
to what the effect on the other members of 
the team was, when either Welford or Reddy 
was sent into the line-up. I quickly discov- 



[95] 



Are You Going to College 

ered that every time that I took Reddy out 
and put Welford in, every man on that team 
took a brace. An air of "now-let's-get-busy" 
settled over the boys. Why Welford has 
that effect, the Lord only knows, — I don't; 
but I know it's there." If he had spread 
this fact broadcast, the chances are that the 
team might have become self-conscious and 
spoilt this effect at a critical point in the game. 
The great trouble with many tyro athletes 
is, that they expect to make the team the first 
year. The truth of the matter is, that very 
few men become proficient in a sport until 
their third year at it. Thus, if they get into 
some of the games in their second season, they 
ought to be very much pleased. Further, do 
not get cold feet when you hear about the 
various prep school stars which are out for 
your team. The boys from Pauls School, 
Penn Charter, Exeter, Andover, Lawrence- 
ville and plenty of other good schools, have a 
good athletic training, but many of them fall 

[96] 



Fourth Letter 



by the wayside when they get into big com- 
pany. The reason for this is, that their vital- 
ity is pumped out of them before they reach 
college. After they get in, they work along 
trying to improve or at least measure up to 
their old form, but the will is stronger than 
the body. My firm opinion is, that the college 
world looses a great many "world-beaters" be- 
cause they were not ripe before they were 
pushed to the limit. The average boy needs 
all his strength to carry him safely througii 
those years from sixteen to nineteen. Many 
of them shoot up like bean poles, and a little 
exercise goes a long way. Let them store up 
reserve force, and then when they get into 
college, they can turn it loose, with the best 
of them. But here again, we run up against 
the unmindful record producing coach. I 
suppose the most damage in this direction is 
done in the case of Track Athletics. On the 
track each boy has the responsibility thrown on 
himself alone. He cannot divide the work 



[97] 



Are You Going to College 

with his team-mates ; he must do all the work 
after he starts in a race, even though he faints 
doing it. Public opinion will not allow him 
to shirk. On the other hand, in a game the 
heavy work is divided. How often do you 
see a man faint in a team sport from over- 
exertion ? Hardly ever, — yes in one, and that 
is rowing. If one man eases up a bit, the 
machine is out of gear. He cannot stop. 
Dick, I am no Molly-coddle, — I have been in 
some stiff contests myself, but nobody, I do 
not care who it is, can convince me that any 
man, young or old, should be driven to the 
limit in an athletic sport, when that limit 
means fainting, or total exhaustion. Ha man 
is not strong enough to finish a quarter on his 
feet, or sit up in a boat at the end of a race, 
he should not be allowed to compete. 

Of course, a prep-school boy should have 
his exercise. He can run his boys' races, 
but this competition between institutions 
should not be so general. Should a boy of 

[98] 



Fourth Letter 



mine show unusual form and speed at some 
sport, I would develop him gradually, and 
allow him to compete in one or two events in 
a year, until he reached college. Then I 
would let him go right to the front, backed up 
with plenty of reserve energy. 

So, Richard, you will find that some of 
these stars will be compelled to make room 
for you, if you are made of the right stuff. 
Another thing in your favor, is that many 
prep-school athletes, who have never had sys- 
tematic training, have picked up bad habits in 
form which it is very difficult for them to lay 
aside. The man who coaches you can take 
you right through in the most approved style, 
without trying to break down a whole lot 
of things before he can start to build up. I 
say trying, because some bad habits are so 
rooted that they cannot be corrected. 

Should my freshman make a good showing 
at foot-ball, I hope he will not get athletic 
crazy, and try every sport on the college 



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Are You Going to College 

schedule- It is all right for you to try one in 
the fall and another in the spring; but when 
you connect up the whole year round with 
competitive foot-ball, track, base-ball and 
track again in the summer, you will be pumped 
out when you reach your third year. Then 
we will hear something like this : "Isn't it 
funny about Dick Dawson, he hasn't run a 
good quarter since his sophomore year." Of 
course not, who can go from one strenuous 
college sport to another, and revive over- 
night? Nervous tension and training as a 
steady diet will put anybody to the bad. And 
take it from me, that the nervous tension be- 
fore a Yale and Princeton foot-ball game, or 
the Poughkeepsie boat races, is "some ten- 
sion." Why I have seen men so nervous an 
hour before big contests, that they can hardly 
sit still. That is when they lose weight. Four 
pounds during a large game is a common 
occurrence ; but they all get it back in a couple 
of days. No, this weight is not lost by 

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reason of the physical exercise; the truth is, 
that the average practice is more strenuous 
than a game; but the uncertainty of winning 
or losing, is the strain. In short, an athlete 
must give his body and mind time to thor- 
oughly rest and recuperate after he has been 
through a season of any sport. He must 
get away from a training diet and not think 
athletics. Foot-ball season ends by the last 
week in November, so if you desire another, 
any one of the spring sports would be in order 
provided that you do not begin to practice 
too early. Then, in the summer, a friendly 
game of tennis, or a little base-ball match, not 
to speak of a swim, will do no harm, so long 
as you do not compete for some champion- 
ship, and do not put yourself on a training 
diet. This course of sports will keep you in 
the highest state of efficiency, while in college, 
without making you a dish-rag and ungerm 
proof when you leave the protecting wing of 
your Alma Mater. 

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Are You Going to College 

This desire on the part of a lot of young 
athletes, to go into every competition, is often 
cultivated by the fact that they measure their 
triumphs by the number of medals or prizes 
that they win, rather than by the quality of 
their achievments. What college man would 
not prefer to take one first place in "The Inter- 
collegiates," than to win fifty firsts in these 
two by twice meets around his home town? 
This peculiar species of track man who tries 
to own all the prizes in sight, is more partic- 
ularly known as a "Pot Hunter." I suppose 
the easiest way to get rid of this individual in 
the present and thus make him shortly a thing 
of the past, would be for all clubs and insti- 
tutions of learning, which give track meets, 
to only indicate first, second and third places 
by different colored ribbons. But as our 
college boy is a materialistic being (for the 
purpose of our letter), I cannot, Dick, very 
seriously advocate this innovation. I am 
afraid I am not in a position to prove to your 

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friends' satisfaction, that it will pay them to 
contest for ribbons as prizes. At any rate, 
we will not tarry with this detail today. 

In glancing over my letter, I find that I 
have been very liberal with my "Don'ts" to- 
night, but I hardly regret this, as it will leave 
me a liberal number of "Dos" for my next 
chat with you. 

Mrs. J. asks me to add her compliments. 
So here goes from 

Yours sincerely 

Harold James. 



[103] 



November ist. 
EAR DICK:— Yours of the 30th was 
interesting, because it shows that you 
must be a little better than a "dub" or 
the coaches would not have kept you in the 
last fifty men, all trying for that foot-ball 
team. From your account, Hastings must 
have a good squad this year. By the way, if 
Williams slapped you on the back and said, 
"Good work, keep it up Freshy," that sounds 
very encouraging to me. Williams is one 
terrific tight-wad when it comes to handing 
out any encouragement to beginners. You 
say that you get back to your dormitory pret- 
ty well tired out, after holding down end for 
an hour against Primrose. Ha! Ha! I guess 
so, but in that we find some more tasty food 
for reflection. You know what Primrose was 
last year. Well, remember that you are not 

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Fifth Letter 

mixing it up with that end for nothing- Take 
it from me, that Williams knows, that the 
best way to develop a youngster, is to put him 
up against one of his best players. This pro- 
cedure holds good in all sports, and also later 
when you are out of college. To learn to 
play a big game, Dick, you must buck up 
against fine players. To learn big business 
you must deal with expert business men. As 
soon as can put it over a fellow every time, 
you are not learning much. In college, al- 
ways pick out the best opponent, as you have 
nothing to lose, and a great deal to learn. 

You wrote something about being tired 
after practice. I hope you are not getting so 
much interested in foot-ball, that your studies 
are not receiving the proper attention. After 
all, our real object at college is our mental 
training, — athletics come second. But why 
take up our time with discussing studies 
versus athletics ; no doubt, father, mother and 
the faculty are doing their part along that line. 

[105] 



Are You Going to College 

Moreover, I believe you have an average 
amount of sense. (Curtain.) 

It strikes me, however, that it might be a 
useful hint for you to hear that it pays to 
play a clean game. If a coach teaches his 
players dirty tactics, he is wasting a great 
deal of valuable time, and further, he will 
immediately reduce the efficiency of his team. 
My experience is, that while a dirty player 
is trying to get in his licks or get even, the 
other fellow is getting away with the ball. 
Of course, Dick, learn all the dirty tricks that 
are known to the athletic trade ; but only with 
the idea of protecting yourself against a 
"rough-neck." On the other hand, do not 
forget that some players try right from the 
start to get the goat of their opponent- They 
are especially fond of going after a new man 
in that way. Just make up your mind, my 
boy, to call the bluff of any representative of 
this species immediately from the first pipe of 
the whistle, and you will find your troubles 

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Fifth Letter 

considerably reduced. Give him an inch and 
your opponent will take a mile ; give him noth- 
ing, and treat him firmly, and he will treat 
you respectfully. I might add, that if any of 
your friends are afraid to give some big fel- 
low "tit for tat", just tell them for me that ft 
ought not to be difficult to call a bluff with 
several officials, and the eleven men of your 
team, on the spot, ready to back you up. To 
be frank, Dick, I never was much in an open 
"free-for all" fight; but I certainly could bark 
some with that sustaining influence mentioned 
above, at my side. 

Now that you are that much encouraged, I 
suppose there is not much chance of you quit- 
ting the ship when the heavy games come 
around; just because you do not get in the 
first few contests. Remember, the thing to 
do, is always to be "Johnny-on-the-spot." 
You, no doubt, have read in the papers lately 
how one of our comic opera stars was taken 
sick, and how a girl out of the chorus had to 

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Are You Going to College 

fill in, — only to become a success in one even- 
ing? Well, in your company, there are eleven 
stars, not only in danger of getting sick, but 
of being made sick by your opponents. Your 
part is in the chorus on the side lines ; but 
your chances are ten times better than in the 
above case. Your turn must come sooner or 
later; as sure as your name is Richard Daw- 
son, the minute you quit, your turn will be 
next, and you will be missing. I will never 
forget what a prominent business man, a 
Cornell graduate, told me when he engaged 
mie for my first job. He said, "Mr. James, 
a young man should always be there when 
something happens, and when nothing hap- 
pens, then he should make something happen." 
See if you cannot fit that to your case. 

To make something happen, a man must 
have good tools to work with. It is surpris- 
ing to see how some athletes will wear clothes 
that do not fit properly, or keep on using them 
after they are half worn out, just for senti- 

[108] 



Fifth Letter 

ment sake. You would imagine that we were 
still in the middle ages to hear certain men 
kick about giving up old stand-bys! Posi- 
tively it savors of superstition to meet a man 
who asserts, "Play without those shoes on my 
feet? Why I can't win without them, they 
bring me good luck !" It is a pretty well ac- 
cepted fact among athletes, that goods that 
have been "worn in" are more efficient than 
entirely new ones. But there is a time when 
your base-ball glove, your spiked shoe, your 
lacrosse stick, or your oar has served its pur- 
pose, as far as actual competition is concern- 
ed- Then take them to your dormitory, and 
hang them on the wall, so that some day your 
children can look on the arms of their "has 
been" father, with pride. That is the place for 
them, not on the field in active contest. 

This care of proper equipment, Dick, you 
will always find is one of the chief character- 
istics of athletes who are consistent winners. 
These men take no chances on the small 

[109] 



Are You Going to College 

things. They eliminate the element of hard- 
luck which you so often hear men complain 
of; they do not break rotten shoe strings just 
as they turn into the home-stretch at the fin- 
ish of a fast quarter. Neither do they roll 
down their socks, so that a spike can catch in 
the same, and throw them in a heap — just as 
their relay is about to cross the tape a winner. 
They also, are the men who will trot out on 
the field with comparatively new cleats on 
their foot-ball shoes, when father Pluvius 
has handed out an extra shower on Friday 
night or early Saturday morning. Those boys 
will be busy carrying the ball while their op- 
ponents are trying to stand up. 

Having impressed on you the fact that a 
man must be well equipped to play properly; 
I fear to leave that topic without a word 
about a parasite which seems to flourish in 
the athletic world, almost as well as its cousin 
does in the business world. 1 mean the ath- 
letic grafter. You may smile, but it seems to 

[ 110 ] 



Fifth Letter 

be born in mankind to try to get something 
for nothing. Keep your ears open and see if, 
before the end of your playing season, you 
don't hear some well-known player recite, 
with pride, how many jerseys and pairs of 
shoes he has succeeded in getting from the 
management. Some men have enough stuff 
to keep them in athletic goods for years to 
come, and yet appear always in the same 
uniform. They do not dispose of them, or 
use them, but they just collect them, while the 
bills of the management steadily increase. 
To run a first class team is a very expensive 
proposition, — especially to the smaller colleges. 
The grafter usually has more than enough 
paraphernalia, while some youngster is with- 
out the proper equipment. I mention this, 
Dick, not because I think you have a tendency 
in that direction ; but some day a word from 
you as a leader in college (now do not blush) 
may have the force of a legal decree. So 

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Are You Going to College 

keep an eye on this "parasite and see how it 
parasites." 

My observation has been, that one-third of 
the athletic contests are won on the other 
fellow's mistake. Here is a rule which you 
will find useful as a good working basis, irre- 
spective of what sport you are interested in. 
It is: "Make everything sure and take no 
chances." Of course, as is the case with ev- 
ery good rule, there must be some exception 
to it, — but what it is here I will keep for 
another day, when you have won your spurs. 
Yes, "make everything sure," — why I could 
sit here for an hour and write page after page 
of cases, where some athlete did not make his 
play sure. Have you ever seen a batter stop 
running before he reached first base, only tcr 
see the first baseman drop the ball which 
looked like a sure out? That is a common 
example. Not long ago I witnessed a hockey 
game between two of our prominent college 
teams. The score stood two to two, when 

[113] 



Fifth Letter 

the forward line of team "A", bore down on 
the goal of team "B". The left wing made a 
quick pass over to the right wing player, who 
negotiated a lightning shot before the goal 
keeper could get from his right post over to 
the left one. The right wing believing it im- 
possible for the goal tend to stop the shot, 
immediately after lifting the puck, turned and 
skated back up the rink. The goal keeper, 
however, in sheer desperation, stuck out his 
stick in the direction of the flying puck; and 
to the surprise of himself as well as of every 
spectator, stopped the rubber, which calmly 
rebounded in front of goal. Had the right 
wing only kept his eye on the puck, he could 
easily have gotten the rebound, and scored the 
winning goal, — in spite of the lucky stop of 
the goal keeper. He did not make that play 
sure, and the other side won in an extra 
period. 

I suppose the most costly fault of this kind 
was committed in the fall of 1908, when 

[113] 



Are You Going to College 

Merkle of the New York Giants failed to 
touch second base in his haste to get back to 
the club-house. Not making the play sure, cost 
McGraw the Championship of the National 
League, Chicago getting first place. As I 
remember, it was in the last half of the ninth 
inning and the score was one to one. There 
were two hands out with Merkle of the Giants 
on first base, and McCormick safely hugging 
third, when Bridwell stepped to the plate and 
tapped a safe hit to centre field- Of course, 
McCormick crossed the home plate with the 
winning run, as Bridwell made for first base ; 
Merkle was then forced on to second, but 
when he saw the winning run go in, instead 
of touching the second base, he turned off to 
the Club-house. Evers, who was playing sec- 
ond base for the "Cubs" had his eyes open 
and immediately called for the ball. He 
touched second with the result, that after an 
appeal to the baseball powers, Merkle was de- 
creed out, and with his out also went the win- 

[114] 



Fifth Letter 

ning run which had been made on that play. 
"Hard luck" you say, Dick; "not so", say I; 
Evers played the game sure and Merkle did 
not. 

Another valuable characteristic of a good 
athlete is that he tries for everything and nev- 
er quits. This goes one step further than 
making a thing sure; it is a case of increas- 
ing your chance of getting a point which you 
have not yet turned in your favor. You will 
hear the expression that "he is the hardest 
worker on the team." As far as the rules of 
most efficient playing will allow him to be, 
there ought to be no hardest worker. Every 
man should be in every play in every game. 
If every player who is in possible reach of a 
play goes for it without waiting for his fel- 
low-player to go first, your team will improve 
to its limit. The first thing to do, is to get 
underway, it is too late when you have found 
out that your team-mate is not as fresh as you 
are. Why is it that men like Hughey Jen- 

[115] 



Are You Going to College 

nings, Tyrus Cobb and Wagner, have made 
their reputations? Simply because they have 
made it the rule of their lives to try for ev- 
er)rthing and never quit. The result is, that 
they make what are often considered as im- 
possible plays. How many times in his palmy 
days didn't Jennings connect up with the ball 
outside of the third base line, when the third 
baseman thought it was out of his reach? 
The fact is that the more you try, the quicker 
you get under way; your movements become 
instinctive, costing you a great deal less ef- 
fort- Watch closely and you can see a good 
back-field player start after a punt almost 
before it is kicked. Just consider the effec- 
tiveness of a team made up of the caliber of 
men which I have mentioned above, — is it any 
wonder that they win when every man works 
all the time? Nobody is over-worked and 
nobody is underworked. 

Whenever I hear the words "never quit," 
it takes me back to the Poughkeepsie boat 

[116] 



Fifth Letter 

races several years ago. The freshman eight- 
oared event was won by Syracuse, after Cor- 
nell had been in the lead nearly the whole way. 
In fact, Cornell at one time in the race had 
such a lead, that any one familiar with ath- 
letic chances, would have said, that even if 
one of the men had fainted dead away, seven 
could have carried the boat across the line, 
victorious. A faint was hardly possible be- 
cause Cornell had not been pushed to the 
limit; they were going easy. Suddenly, like 
a bolt out of a clear sky, the Cornell shell 
collided with a buoy and stove in her bow. 
Syracuse then came up and won with ease. 
"Cruel luck" you say, but it is this element 
that makes college sport fascinating. There 
is always a chance for the weaker teams. 

I have, Dick, without taking up any parti- 
cular sport, touched on some of the general 
things which you, as an athlete ought to know. 
To teach you the game is what your coaches 
are picked for; and as some colleges differ 

[ 117 ] 



Are You Going to College 

with reference to the details of system of 
play, it would not be proper for me to com- 
ment on the effectiveness of particular form- 
ations. There is one more thing, however, 
on which I think all well-balanced men agree ; 
and that is, that it pays to be be a good winner, 
and also a good loser. At first blush it would 
seem that anyone could be a good winner. 
But such is not the case. Most people seem 
to be possessed with an insane desire to rub 
it in; they seem to forget that they them- 
selves have at times lost games; but for the 
present they take on an air of "I-told-you-so." 
Especially the winners' lady friends always 
seem to expect a word of praise. A good 
working rule when you win, Dick, is to keep 
your enthusiasm in check until you get off by 
yourself with some of your own boys, and 
then you can cut loose- Tell them how you 
did it, — or rather how your team did it, al- 
ways keeping the big "I" in the background. 
I may be wrong, but it strikes me that a 

[118] 



Fifth Letter 

member of a college team is somewhat in the 
same position of a boy going to school. My 
father always said: "Harold, I refuse to 
praise you for bringing home good reports, 
as that is what you go to school for." So 
when a man signs up for a team, he ought to 
consider it his duty to do his best for it, irre- 
spective of praise. Do not forget that if the 
boys get the idea that you are a wonder, that 
they will, at times, expect the impossible of 
you. The smart man shares the praise with 
some one else so that he will have a few handy 
to give him a lift when the team is in for a 
good husky bump. Should it so happen that 
you cannot decently escape coming in contact 
with your opponents or their friends until 
several days after the match, then always tell 
them what a close match it was. That it was 
anybody's game, only you had the luck with 
you. You can very easily put this over on 
mother or sister of defeated John; as they 
are not expected to know or see when John 

[119] 



Are You G oing to College 

is absolutely rotten and should be home dig- 
ging potatoes instead of trying to play foot- 
ball. 

It is hard enough to win with dignity, but 
you ought to see the difficulty pile up when 
it comes to being a good loser. To lose and 
smile at the same time is more than an accom- 
plishment, — especially when you feel that the 
referee or umpire has lost the game for you, 
by reason of an unjust decision. (How much 
easier it would have been to say "robbed"). 
My experience has been that after a game is 
lost, there is no use crying over spilt milk. 
All the "damning" you do, cannot change the 
result. Further, if you offer excuses to ev- 
erybody who asks you about the game, you 
will soon be marked as a sore-head. Be a 
man, come back at them with something like 
this : "Say, that was a great game, your boys 
certainly surprised us in good shape- Well, 
it's our turn next time. Good-bye girls, hope 
to meet you soon again." There! you have 

[120] 



Fifth Letter 

made just that many friends, whereas if you 
had started a long argument, you could never 
have convinced a winner or his friends that 
his victory was not fair ; and you would have 
done yourself and your college a great deal 
of harm. Argue, and John's mother and her 
croonies, will march home and tell the rest of 
their friends, "My what a bunch of sore- 
heads ! I would not let my boys go to Hast- 
ings if it was the last college in the world." 
So it does not pay, — smile and take your med- 
icine. Dick, I have met a good many college 
boys in my day, and I find the whole lot 
averages up as a good sort, with one or two 
black sheep thrown in. It is funny, but we 
are easily convinced that the other fellow's 
team does the dirty work. They are a bunch 
of "muckers" ; they always "buffalo" the um- 
pire. My theory is, to go in and win in spite 
of the dirty work and the umpire or referee, — 
win by a score that shows conclusively which 
is the better team, — and then shut up. 

[121] 



Are You Going to College 

Finally, Dick, about this peculiar indescrib- 
able thing called "College Spirit." What is 
College Spirit? I find myself very much in 
the position of the average individual when 
asked to describe a spiral staircase. Dick, 
what is a spiral staircase? Ah, I can already 
see you making movements with your hands, 
in your eiforts to show the shape of a spiral. 
You cannot find ready words to describe it; 
but you would recognize one when you saw it. 
So with "College Spirit" ; I can feel it on the 
campus, in the dormitories and in the clubs, — 
but how define it? 

A man meets you on the street and tells 
you : "Out of the three hundred men at Hast- 
ings University, two hundred are trying for 
the foot-ball team, how is that for spirit"? 
At the Club, you meet Jones and he chirps up : 
"Going to the Army and Navy game ? I think 
the Army is going to put it all over the Navy ; 
but I like the spirit of the sailor boys ; all bets 
are at even money." Another time, Mr. A. 

[ 122 ] 



Fifth Letter 

rushes into your office with the following: 
"Can't put that deal through for at least three 
days; Jackson has gone to attend the Com- 
mencement Exercises and Reunion at Yale, 
and absolutely refuses to be called home." You 
say, "Too bad," — but think after Mr, A. has 
left, "I guess that is some College Spirit." 
Again you secure your little paste-board and 
get your best girl, and attend a game of 
ball. Although your college has the game 
practically cinched by fifteen runs in the third 
inning, yet the rooters of the losing team 
cheer each player as he steps to the plate ; and 
if he gets as far as first base, they make the 
welkin ring. You turn to "Mary Liz" with a 
patronizing smile and remark, "They do not 
know how to play ball, but these rooters have 
the proper spirit." 

Not long ago. Carter University wanted a 
million dollars as an endowment fund. A 
banquet was planned to loosen the purse 
strings ; after five courses of good "eats" and 

[123] 



Are You Going to College 

some popping of bottles, the campaign (not 
champagne) was launched; with the result, 
that one-half of that million was subscribed 
then and there. Next morning the Daily 
Gazette spoke editorially as follows : "Great 
was the enthusiasm at the Carter University 
banquet last evening, when it was announced 
that five hundred thousand dollars had been 
subscribed at the one sitting. The spirit 
shown by the older men and also the younger 
alumni was most encouraging." 

The acme of college spirit, however, I think 
you will agree with me, Dick, would be reach- 
ed, if your Faculty would allow all of your 
students to be excused from all laboratory 
work for a week, so that you could practice 
up yells for the Stanford game. It has been 
done before. 

From these many individual instances, Dick, 
let us see if we can deduce a definition for 
this vague thing called College Spirit. Listen, 
"College spirit is the readiness with which a 

[m] 



Fifth Letter 

man, woman or child, who is in any way con- 
nected with an institution of learning, is wil- 
ling to give time or money or both, to further, 
to the exclusion of everything else, either ath- 
letically or financially, the prominence or 
standing of said institution." Let me know 
what you think of that ; but do not show it to 
anyone outside of the lodge. If you do, I 
can see just about five hundred well-meaning 
parties proceeding to "ge-ump" on yours truly 
with both feet, because of the phrase "to the 
exclusion of everything else", and for the un- 
due prominence given the word "athletically." 
I don't blame them, they cannot appreciate 
that there is only one thing, "first, last and all 
the time" to the college man attending college, 
and that is his college- As for the word 
"athletically", that is put in simply to catch 
the eye of the bright student (you) or he 
would not read the definition at all. If the 
railroads near a college town would, at their 
crossings put up signs with the word "defini- 

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Are You G oing to College 

tion", they would find it much more effective 
than "Warning: Stop, Look, Listen" to keep 
those boys away from the track. No college 
man goes near a definition if he can help it. 
The clock strikes eleven, as a warning that 
I ought to stop. So take all the above in the 
spirit in which it is given. 

Yours sincerely, 

Harold James. 



[126] 



^ixtlj Hotter 

November 6th. 

SEAR DICK :— You write that all of your 
foot-ball camp is in a fit of constern- 
ation, because a poster signed by the 
faculty, has appeared, giving notice that no 
one will be allowed to play on any of the ath- 
letic teams at Hastings, unless he has an aver- 
age of 70% in his studies. You also ask me 
whether I have any suggestion as to the best 
way to meet this requirement. I congratulate 
Hastings on falling in line with most of the 
prominent colleges by adopting a standard of 
scholarship for its teams. In the past, I be- 
lieve your faculty contended that this was an 
unnecessary restriction. It looks to me as if 
somebody is getting wise as to why big Jim 
Benson preferred to switch from a course of 
Mechanical Engineering at H^irtford, to the 

[127] 



Are You Going to College 

classical one at Hastings. It may be, that 
those classical representations of the "Discus 
Thrower" or the "Dying Gladiator" which he 
saw in Europe last summer, created in him 
a desire in that direction. But it is more than 
likely that the badly sprained ankle which he 
had last spring, — before the base ball season 
opened, — was brought on by a little note signed 
"Faculty," and which read: "Three studies 
very unsatisfactory, — Disqualified." Of course 
Dick, I am only surmising and may be wrong, 
but a close friend of mine who attended a 
faculty meeting about that time, told me he 
helped to write the note. 

The only suggestion which I can male, and 
I hate to do it, is that each one of you fellows 
study your lessons. That is the on\y safe 
"hunch." I do not know exactly what 70% 
means- The scale of marking differs in many 
colleges, but I know this much, the faculty has 
not set a standard so high that you caimot take 
it with comparative ease, and some to spare. 

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Sixth Letter 

It has often amused me to see how hard some 
boys will work to keep from studying. If 
these very men would put half of this time in 
at their lessons, they would make a fair show- 
ing, and not be on the anxious bench, wonder- 
ing whether they will be called on to recite or 
not. 

Upon further consideration, there are one 
or two things which will make the instructor 
look upon you with more favor, when it comes 
to your turn to recite. Again these pointers 
may prove of great assistance to you, should 
you require one sixty-thousandths of a per 
centum to make up that fatal seventy. First, 
always attend lectures, and second, always be 
punctual. A student may think that a day off 
here and there makes no difference, because 
the instructor has told his class with a great 
air of indifference, at the time of his first 
lecture : "Gentlemen, I will just remark by 
way of information, that my lectures will be- 
gin promptly, and I do not expect to take my 

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Are You Going to College 

valuable (accent on the valuable) time in 
watching a student's attendance If you miss 
anything, that is not my funeral, but yours." 
This sounds too soft to be true, and as a cer- 
tainty, it is not true. Primarily, because a 
professor is bound to be inspired to do good 
work when the attendance is large ; — and sec- 
ondly, when a man has a large following of 
students, it is generally indicative of his abil- 
ity to impart knowledge. This ability means 
calls to other colleges, and they, in turn, if he 
does not care to change, act as levers to raise 
his salary at the one he is lecturing. Compet- 
ition is the life of trade ; and after all, lectur- 
ing is also a trade, if you have a family to 
support. 

So much for the attendance in general. 
Now a word about punctual attendance- 
Come in late and every student will have a 
look. This is bound to attract the attention 
of the lecturer, and at the same time distract 
his attention from what he is saying. Some 

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Sixth Letter 

men I know, consider lateness at lectures a 
personal insult, and others lock their doors 
when they begin to speak. It is, therefore, a 
grave question whether a late attendance is 
not worse than a non-attendance. In the lat- 
ter case, the instructor may not miss you ; but 
in the former, your name is "dennis." So my 
hint is, that when five out of six instructors, 
who have "college spirit", — are trying to con- 
scientiously boost you over that 70^ mark, 
because you are the best end on the foot-ball 
team, — do not have a record of non-attendance 
or unpunctuality staring them in the face. 
This is very disconcerting when they need an 
excuse for doing the right thing. 

Since we are on this most unpleasant phase 
of college life, — studies, — I will give you a 
few observations by a man who never was an 
honor man in his class, nor landed at the very 
bottom; but who sailed a medium course be- 
tween both ends, and managed to have a little 
fun on the side. It is imperative to make it a 

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Are You G oing to College 

rule to do some studying every evening. In- 
formation acquired in that way, makes an im- 
pression ; this "boning" up for an examination 
is all right as a finishing touch, but it will not 
last. As a matter of fact, a bright student 
can dismiss all he crammed up for one exam- 
ination, in time to make room for the next 
day's battle. 

After you have been working steadily 
through the term, I would prescribe a series of 
"quizzes" for the last ten days. These meet- 
ings to exchange ideas are very helpful, be- 
cause half a dozen young men in convention 
assembled, can very much more easily think 
up matters of importance with reference to a 
particular course, than a lone individual. The 
chances are that all the students have not been 
cutting lectures all at the same time. Again, 
there is the other possibility, that all were not 
out on a party the night before a specially im- 
portant explanation by the professor. Now, 
Dick, when you send out invitations for a 

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Sixth Letter 

"quizz", be sure to include in your half dozen, 
one of the brightest men in the class. No 
quizz can be a success, without a light that can 
radiate information. Then when the fellows, 
comprising this half dozen, begin to spread 
their knowledge all over the room, have pen 
and paper ready to make copious notes- The 
notes you memorize the night before exam. 
Of course, it is an easy matter, in most 
courses, to pass if you know what questions 
the instructor is going to ask. Now, as under 
the most favorable circumstances you can 
hardly expect the preceptor to let you know 
what his questions will be; the best the boys 
can do is to study what they think the in- 
structor considers most important. A most 
logical way to prepare for an exam., especially 
when it is up to you to absorb four months' 
work in four days. That the practical stu- 
dent and the professor, deep in theory, do not 
always happen to land on the same thing as 
important, is evident from two questions 

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Are You Going to College 

which were asked in a chemistry examination 
not so long ago. Imagine the consternation 
of our friends when these greeted their eyes : 
"Question i. Why is a cow?" "Question 2. 
Why is the moon made of green cheese?" 
One student in chemistry, who became a little 
peeved, promptly volunteered this informa- 
tion: "Answer i. Because she cannot help 
it." "Answer 2. Because the cow got sick, 
I do not know the 'reaction.' " 

There is, however, one way in which the 
student body can find out whether an instruct- 
or ever resorts to catch questions. That is by 
making a careful study of all the examina- 
tion papers of any particular course back to 
the time when the instructor who is going to 
give the examination, began to take charge. 
Yes they can be found, but get busy now 
Richard, and corral them long before the oth- 
er boys begin to wake up. Later on every- 
body will want a copy at the same time. Why, 
I bet you odds right now, that the papers are 

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Sixth Letter 

carefully stored away in each Frat House on 
your campus- If not, get busy and make a 
collection for the boys who are to follow and 
your grave will always be kept green, watered 
by their tears of gratitude. At the quizzes, 
these questions should be carefully gone over, 
and answers formulated (by the bright man 
in the class) which you also "cram" the night 
before the examination. A lot of these ques- 
tions covering several years, will embrace 
nearly all the important topics of a subject; 
and also any idiosyncrasies of the instructor. 
The beauty of this procedure is, that it is per- 
fectly fair, and to the point; no sensible in- 
structor wants to find out what you don't 
know. He is satisfied if you know the im- 
portant features of his course. 

Now that you are clear on preparing for 
exams, let me give you a little consolation in 
case you do not come out at the top of your 
class. It is not necessary for you to be one of 
the top notchers to make good in the game 

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Are You Going to College 

which you must play after you leave the col- 
lege halls. A mere book-worm will not do. 
He is too one-sided for this every-day prac- 
tical world; what it needs is a bright, honest, 
common sense, clean, healthy, hard-working 
all-around fellow. Do not understand me to 
say that a good scholastic record is to be dis- 
dained; far from it, — only it alone is not 
enough. Often we find men who take part in 
all college activities, and yet stand high in their 
studies. That is what I call a trump ; he has 
received the benefits of a real college training. 
Not infrequently, we come across people 
who are convinced that the minute a boy takes 
part in athletics, he is an impossibility as a 
student. In other words, when athletic prom- 
inence comes in, scholastic standing goes out. 
This, to my observation, while in close touch 
with college athletes for the last eleven years, 
is by no means the rule. There are few men 
who, while they are too stupid to stand well 
in their classes, can be good athletes. If they 

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Sixth Letter 

do not measure up in their studies, it is be- 
cause they are too busy or the instructor is 
unable to make the subject interesting to them. 
It is utterly impossible to make a good athlete 
out of a block-head. Modern contests are 
not won by automatons. It takes a good logi- 
cal mental equipment to outwit your opponent. 
A man who can work out mathematical prob- 
lems, a man who can analyse his chemical 
compound with accuracy; and the man who 
knows the "whys" and "hows" of his physics 
experiments, is the man who, if he has the 
physical qualifications (and these need not be 
too high), — can make a good athlete. 

Lately when a man says to me, "How do 
you think that fellow over there will do for 
our team? He looks pretty hefty." My an- 
swer, involuntarily, is "Looks pretty good, 
but how does he stand in his studies." No 
doubt many of our athletes could stand higher 
in their classes; but out on the campus they 

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Are You Going to College 

are learning a few valuable things which no 
instructor can teach them in a classroom. 

There is still one card left to play before 
you are compelled to resign yourself to your 
fate, and take your walking papers, if you 
should draw a failing mark. This card is, 
what is known as the tutor trick. You re- 
quest a private conference with the instructor 
whose course you do not seem to be able to 
fathom ; and then you suggest the fact that 
you would like him to name a man who can 
coach you up. Never under any circumstan- 
ces, pick out a man that anyone else may re- 
commend. The divine influence in this pro- 
ceeding seems to be, that your instructor does 
the picking. It is peculiar, but college statis- 
tics show that ninety-nine out of every hun- 
dred scholastic failures, are cured in time for 
the final examinations, if the proper coach or 
tutor is secured. If the instructor suggests his 
own services, don't gfin,T)Ut only smile; and 
dilate on how kind it is for him to go out of 

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Sixth Letter 

his way to assist you. But never let him get 
away from you, because you are on the road 
to recovery already. 

Some men get the idea that they can get in 
the good graces of the professor, if they have 
a "pow-wow" with him every time they meet 
him. And if they do not happen to meet him, 
they chase around after the "prof" until thejj 
have him cornered. After a lecture you will 
always find some students making a bee-line 
for the preceptor's desk, to ask him some 
question- They cannot wait until the ordin- 
ary routine of a course brings them logically 
to a proposition. No, it is a case of cross- 
country for them. "What for?" say you, "is 
all this?" "Why bother a man who wants to 
get away to some original problem ?" My boy 
those students can't help it, they have what is 
commonly known as a bad case of "boot-lick- 
ing." The ordinary symptons are those as 
set out above. In chronic cases, the person 
afflicted is continually raising his hand in, 

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Are You Going to College 

classrooms and volunteering information, 
when the average young man does not know 
the answer. It is certainly delightful to know 
something the other fellow does not know ; but 
do not give the answer, Dick, unless you are 
directly asked by the instructor. Remember, 
that it is human to be jealous of the man who 
knows more than you do ; but my, how it gets 
you in the craw, when he rubs it in. So you 
see, a student must guard not only against 
actual "boot-licking", but also against imagin- 
ary "boot-licking", which is a case where the 
other fellows think that you are petting the 
instructor along to get good marks; whereas, 
you are not thinking of such a thing. To sum 
the matter up, Dick, treat your instructor re- 
spectfully, and kindly ; but do not go very far 
out of your way to rush him. 

This relation between the student and his 
instructor is a very funny thing, and does not 
always work out successfully. Why is it, that 
some teachers are great favorites, and others 

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Sixth Letter 

are only considered as a burden, which cannot 
be avoided, but must be endured ? My obser- 
vation is, that the trouble is with the precept- 
or. I take the liberty to say this here to you, 
Dick, because I feel I can discuss a matter 
with you, without having you carry away a 
wrong impression, which might give rise to 
rebellious campaigns by a less mature mind. 
I say the trouble is with the instructor, because 
the minute the average man takes charge of a 
class, he assumes so much dignity that he 
almost falls over backwards. He seems to 
forget that as instructor, and the older man, 
it is up to him to fix the relation between him- 
self and his student. He often waits for the 
student to speak first when he passes him on 
the campus, instead of volunteering a friendly 
nod and putting the younger man at his ease. 
Dignity is always proper in a classroom and 
nothing can be accomplished without it- At 
all other times, dignity is also in its place, but 
it must be tempered, a little with the spirit of 

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Are You Going to College 

good fellowship, if an instructor wants to get 
the confidence of the student body. The 
greatest trouble seems to be, that the instruct- 
or does not become acquainted with his class 
and the class does not get a chance to know 
him. The result is, that the greatest mischief- 
maker I know, to wit : "one misunderstanding" 
gets in his licks. One student gets the idea 
that an instructor has treated him unfairly, 
and he tells the other fellows so. The result 
is, that fifty or more men believe his state- 
ment; because they do not know the instruct- 
or well enough to offset, by their own experi- 
ence, what the student declares is so. The 
next thing, we find is, that the instructor is 
looked upon by the majority of the student 
body as being peculiar, or unfair. Now, as 
the boys get in closer touch with the incoming 
classes than any professor, the next step is 
for the seed of discontent to become tradition, 
and the instructor is branded for years to 
come. The real remedy seems to be for the 

[143] 



Sixth Letter 

instructor to make it his business, whether he 
cares to or not, to mingle with the students at 
their social functions, or give them a lift with 
their athletic teams Of course, the easiest 
way to the heart of a college man, or a prep- 
school youngster, is by way of his athletic 
interests. A preceptor should post himself 
so that he can intelligently discuss their prob- 
lems with them. He should get up and make 
speeches at their meetings, without having the 
faculty halo hanging all over himself. I know 
of one learned doctor who did not know a 
great deal about the technique of games ; but 
he did come out and look on while the boys 
were fighting for glory. He was voted ace 
high by the boys, when one day, as the home 
team pulled out by a narrow margin in the 
last four minutes, he tossed his hat in the air 
with the rest of the "bunch." That same 
season, he fixed himself for life in the hearts 
of the campus, when he stood out in a thun- 
der-storm holding a chair over his head for 

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Are You Going to College 

protection, because he would not desert the 
side lines while the game was anybody's con- 
test. Now let some freshy start something 
about said professor, and he is quietly in- 
formed that he must be mistaken as all the 
other fellows know he is O. K. 

Many instructors have the idea that if they 
get on an intimate footing with the student 
body, they cannot control it in their class- 
rooms. This is a very narrow view, and 
shows lack of insight into the character of the 
average boy. A young man knows just as 
well as the "Prof" that a class-room is no 
place to lark. Should a youngster forget him- 
self, just a friendly conference with him, in 
which his attention is called to what it means 
to the lecturer and to the whole class to have 
order, will bring about all that is desired. The 
result depends all on how the correction is 
made. There is nothing a young man, or even 
a small boy, resents more than being attacked 
unjustly and harshly. But if some prank can 

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Sixth Letter 

be turned into a joke, for the benefit of the 
whole class, at the expense of the boisterous 
youngster, then the lecture can be resumed 
with perfect decorum. 

Dick, by this time you must imagine that I 
have booked you for a teacher, and am hand- 
ing you a few handy rules. They may not be 
very interesting to you now; but I thought I 
would "let her fly" as you may consider doing 
some tutoring while you are at college, and 
then "a stitch in time is worth nine." 

Little did I think, when I sat down to an- 
swer your letter tonight, that I would confine 
myself almost entirely to the scholastic side of 
college; but I dare say I've dropped you one 
or two hints not yet served for your edifica- 
tion by either Ma or Pa. Finally, Dick, 
sticking to my materialistic view-point, — they 
pay. 

With regards to your room-mate, believe 
me, Yours sincerely, 

"Hal" James. 

[145] 



November 12th. 

JF% EAR DICK :— Politics —that sounds 
" ~| like the buzz of a New Jersey mos- 
quito. For the last two weeks I have 
read nothing in the papers but politics. For 
the same length of time, I haven't been in a 
lunch room where you could hear anything, 
but a consistent rumble which spelt politics. 
Finally, a letter from a freshman, who I 
thought was interested in little but athletics, 
and Frats, ends up with this eloquent phrase: 
"We are going to have a class election ; if you 
have a little time, tell me, please, what you 
know about politics." 

Dick, I cannot tell you all I know about 
politics, because I am afraid your mother 
might see this letter; and some of the lan- 
guage that I would be compelled to use, 

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Seventh Letter 



would not just be agreeable to her. Politics — 
why I am glad you also used the word "elec- 
tion", the sound of the former word always 
leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Of course, 
anything that has to do with "tics" is bother- 
some; but I believe it is more the way that 
City boss of ours swings it around his tongue 
that gets my goat- Yet, I must cool down, 
or some one will say "Sore-head, I bet he has 
been dumped by the organization." So I 
cannot tell you all I know about politics, and 
to tell the truth, since the last congressional 
election, I am inclined to believe that what I 
do not know about the game would fill quite 
a bulky volume. If it must be the said topic 
tonight, it is at least a relief to consider it at 
college, where it is still clean. 

In all seriousness, Dick, I am glad that you 
are finding a little spare time to take part in 
elections. They do not come often, but if you 
think for a instant that your class assembles 
on a certain afternoon, and that then and 



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Are You Going to College 

there the whole scheme is outlined and com- 
pleted, — then you have run into a siding, and 
should get back on your main track. To put 
it in a pretty way, these little things are 
"doped out" weeks ahead of time. I have 
told you before, that college is a little world 
of its own; and then only a minature of the 
large world outside. Well, politics in college 
is like the same diversion in any of the cities 
of our country, only minus filth and a compli- 
cated voting system. 

When it comes to the machine or organi- 
zation, you will also find that at Hastings, 
only it is more subject to change. Like 
all enterprises, it takes a good executive to 
make the machine go. As the men stay in, 
college four years, you see the executive is 
not a fixture. The parties are also not as 
staple as they are in public life; but there is 
one thing sure, Dick, and that is, that you can 
count on as many factions as there are Clubs 
or Societies in college ; — and to this always add 

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Seventh Letter 



one extra which is the non-frat element. This 
element is practically the independent vote, 
and must be carefully taken care of. 

The reason that everybody and especially 
the Societies at college are interested in the 
elections, is that, having many of their mem- 
bers in office, is a great advertisement for the 
lucky Society. The strength of a Society in 
any college, depends very much on the offices 
its men hold. Then again, men who are not 
physically suited for athletic honors, desire to 
shine in some other way. 

So weeks before a class or athletic-board 
election, some college politician begins to set 
up a slate, which he thinks he can put through, 
and then the underground work starts. The 
moving spirit is generally some Frat man; 
who gets a majority of the factions pledged tq 
support his ticket, by judicially buying each 
party with one or more places on the slate. 
The Fraternity which stands in best with the 
non-frat men, can generally dictate terms. 



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Are You Going to College 

But alas, our college politicians will often find 
themselves double-crossed at the last minute- 
In college a candidate also has a large person- 
al following, as he is known personally to each 
man, who can judge for himself whether he 
is suitable to hold a certain position. Thus 
the faction which is the lucky possessor of a 
good athlete, or a good mixer, stands pretty 
high when it comes to dictating terms to the 
other parties. A good rule to follow, in elec- 
tions at college, strikes me is one that a well- 
known and successful operator in Wall Street 
told me about not long ago. When I asked 

him, "To what, Mr. , do you attribute 

your success? His reply, after a few puffs 
of his cigar, was: "Do not be a hog, leave a 
few points for the other fellow," — and (after 
a few more puffs) : "Honesty is the best poli- 
cy, I have tried dishonesty and found it didn't 
pay." Pretty frank, you think, Dick, but that 
does not make it any less true. If the various 
factions at college get the idea that you are 

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Seventh Letter 



taking the "swine" proportion of the offices, 
they will give your party the "go by" next 
time. 

Richard, if you are looking for a class 
presidency, I suppose you know that the senior 
class office is the coveted one. If that is your 
aim, then do not let anybody railroad you in 
as freshman class president. Few executives 
of the freshman aggregation repeat when it 
comes to the senior year. It is funny, but it 
is more than a wise youth who can please all 
factions enough to be able to pull through 
without stepping on some one's toes. 

Now, I do not want you to understand me 
to advise you against taking any political job 
in college in your freshman class. By no 
means, — ^because it is a well-known fact that a 
man who desires to progress, must show the 
rest of his friends, that he can take care of a 
piece of work when it is given to him to do. 
Take one of the smaller positions, and fill it 
properly ; this will let the boys in college know 

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/ire You Going to College 

that you are more than only an athlete, but 
have also some business ability. If you refuse 
to do every little job, why you are hiding your 
light under a bushel, and you cannot blame 
the boys if they do not consider you for a 
senior office. 

A value of college politics that should not 
be overlooked, is that it gets a lot of young 
blood interested in the matter of suffrage, 
and then the chances are that they will at 
least vote in public elections after they leave 
college. Everybody is complaining that poli- 
tics are rotten, but the shouters are just the 
people who refuse to give a little time to help 
push in the right direction. You will always 
find the professional politician on the job, it 
is his bread and butter. He works three hun- 
dred and sixty-five days in the year; and, 
therefore, he is an expert at the game. The 
reformers only appear for a spurt when things 
really get too bad. Now, the college man has 
the tendency, by reason of his non-contact 

[152] 



Seventh Letter 



with the world at large, to forget that he has 
a civic duty to perform. Therefore, I say 
that indulgence in practical college politics 
ought to keep alive, and possibly fan into a 
flame an ember of public duty which might 
otherwise die. 

In the last few years, it has been interesting 
to note, that in many of the colleges a start 
has been made by the men to get into public 
elections. Clubs in practical politics have 
been formed, and the men have gone out on 
election days and acted as runners or watch- 
ers. This will bear fruit, because the way to 
really get a man interested in anything, is to 
make him do some work for the particular 
cause- Of course the men who attend col- 
leges like Yale and Harvard, Pennsylvania, 
Hopkins and others, which are situated in 
cities, and not in the country districts, have a 
good opportunity to take up practical work of 
this kind. 

Dick, you also described in your last letter, 

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Are You Going to College 

with a good deal of enthusiasm, a reception 
that the President had given to the freshman 
class. Well, from what I know of Hastings, 
this must be one of the tamest affairs that you 
will meet with during your sojourn at said 
institution. You have still to be introduced 
to the little musical club affairs, the state- 
ly "Proms" with the ladies as a trimming, the 
less stately Dramatic Club "Jamborees", and 
lastly, the least stately Class Banquets. 

I only mention the musical clubs and Proms 
in passing, because each have their rules and 
regulations which social etiquette requires 
(see Ladies' Home Journal, any issue). 
Further, they are purely social, and only teach 
the boys behavior and proper bearing in the 
presence of ladies. This is essential for any 
well rounded man be he of the college type or 
otherwise, but which, I feel, ought to be bred 
in every American boy; in fact, thoroughly 
rooted in any man before he reaches college. 

Now, when it comes to Dramatic Club 

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Seventh Letter 



"Jamborees", and Class Banquets, I must 
tarry a moment and chat with thee. To begin 
with, in some colleges before a class banquet, 
the questions comes up whether the event is to 
be dry or wet. Taking it for granted that you 
are uninitiated, — dry or wet means whether 
drinks are to be served or not. When this 
proposition is put to a vote, the wets gener- 
ally win out. Whereupon the next practical 
consideration is whether the liquid refresh- 
ments are to be included in the subscription 
for the banquet, or whether each person is to 
pay for what he drinks. Here on the other 
hand, you will find the vote in favor of the 
drys, as the latter do not feel that they ought 
to be burdened with the capacity of the wets. 
On the whole for the welfare of everybody 
concerned, the best way to arrange matters, is 
to have each order what he pleases and pay 
for it. In this way, the capacity of the wets 
is not stretched to an unusual degree. 

Before my little temperance lecture, I wish 



[155] 



Are Y ou G oing to College 

you to distinctly understand, Dick, that I am 
not saying that thou shalt not do this or that ; 
first, because I am not your father, and second- 
ly, because I know that the "don't-you-dare" 
method is the wrong way to achieve results 
with young men. They, — like most of hu- 
manity, — derive a particular pleasure from in- 
dulging in forbidden fruit. Why, if my fath- 
er (I thank him for his ingenuity) had told 
me, "Harold, I will not allow you to smoke 
until you are twenty-one," I would be an in- 
veterate smoker now, and probably have been 
a veritable chimney, before sixteen. 

But no he simply said one day : "Look here, 
sonny, you will probably see your friends 
smoking soon and you will also want to smoke. 
I will not forbid you to do so, but come to me 
so that I can give you something decent to 
puff away at, something that will not hurt 
you." I promised to do so, and the result 
was that I was not compelled to betake myself 
to the hay loft or a coal bin, to get in a few 
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Seventh Letter 



puffs in secret; I cared not to smoke. As I 
progressed through college, I, at times, missed 
my pipe, but only to feel rewarded when the 
other fellows were complaining about their 
wind; and that they had to give up smoking 
when they went into training. People tell me 
I am missing a great deal by not smoking now, 
but I am from Missouri, and they must show 
me. So far, I can't see that it pays. Curtain 
on that subject, because I am wandering away 
from my real topic : "drink at class banquets." 
Dick, I think it is safe to phrophecy that you 
will never go to a class spread, where you will 
not find at least one fellow under the influence 
of liquor. This influence seems to develop 
peculiar tendencies ; most men enjoy breaking 
dishes and making funny speeches, or throw- 
ing salads at looking glasses ; but why go into 
these details that you can see for yourself? 
At your first banquet, be careful when you 
are invited to take a drink, remember that a 
high-ball is a very deceptive and insidious 



[157] 



Are You G oing to College 

thing. Further, go it very easy, because if 
you once get intoxicated with the boys, you 
are almost sure to be with the happy throng 
the next time. I do not say, "do not drink", 
but I say, "never get drunk." It is just that 
turning point which is very difficult to locate, 
— hence "play safe." 

Many people advance the argument that a 
young man must sow his wild oats at college ; 
and that he will get over it and settle down. 
My observation has been that some young men 
have not the strength of character to get over 
it ; they go to the bad unless quickly removed 
and placed in solid company. I agree that 
not many fellows are injured by these "once- 
in-a-while" parties, but the trouble about it is, 
Dick, that you do not know whether you are 
not going to be one of the unlucky few. 

The funny part of it all is, that the college 
men who indulge in parties the oftenest, are 
the very ones who admire a young man who 
sticks to his ginger ale and gets into bed at a 

[158] 



Seventh Letter 



proper hour- They will not tell you so, and 
even ridicule you for not taking a hand in 
their trips to paint the town red; but it's so 
and I dare anyone to deny it. A temperate 
living pays not only in college, but in the bus- 
iness world. Why the big industrial heads 
who are the worst roust-abouts and intemper- 
ate livers, are the first ones to refuse to have 
in their employ a young man with similar 
habits. They refuse to and often cannot stop 
themselves, but therefore, they want to know 
that their business interests are fully protected. 
You may say that a man should not find fault 
with a youngster because he himself does not 
practice what he preaches. That is true as a 
general proposition ; but how much more elo- 
quent and forcible is the advice of a man who 
knows that certain habits do not pay, and yet 
cannot break away from them. Put this little 
"straight cut" in your pipe and smoke it. "To 
get along with the boys, it is only necessary 
for you to deliver the goods, all else is bosh." 



[159] 



Are You Going to College 

I repeat this characteristic phrase by Uncle 
Josh; because so many young men seem to 
think that it is necessary always to drink, to be 
a successful mixer. Observe Dick, along the 
lines suggested, and let me hear your deduc- 
tions, — they will interest me. 

The above banquet room air has given me a 
stuffy feeling, so a stroll on the campus for a 
few deep breaths will do me good. What do 
you hear about the Princeton and Yale game? 
Who does Coach Williams think will win the 
contest? Possibly he has heard something 
from Camp or Coy about Yale; you know a 
fellow can't get any satisfaction out of these 
dailies ; they write a great deal, but you never 
know whether or not some masterful hand 
has doctored them. There is so much in 
keeping the other team in the dark. The duce 
of it all is, that I have been tied down pretty 
close to my desk lately ; but this rush must be 
over soon, and then for a few of these cross- 
country hikes over to Morning Grove to see 
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Seventh Letter 



the boys at work, and back again. Tell Wil- 
liams to keep his eye pealed for "Pop" Warn- 
er's Indian braves; they look like they might 
take in a few good scalps this year, while the 
"big-heap-whites" are getting under way, — 
to be more explicit, while the season is young. 
By the way, Dick, that was a good picture 
of yours in one of the New York papers last 
Sunday; I believe it was entitled "Hastings 
Scrub Line-up." You look like you were 
going right after them ; was that for press 
purposes only, or do you always mean business 
in that way? Well we'll see, — you can't fool 
yours truly when he gets his optics on you 
from the side-lines! In a week or two I'll 
see whether you are a real live "pup" or 
whether it is only mother and sister (your 
sister of course) who are seeing things 
through the eyes of family pride- 
Ding! dong! there goes ten-thirty; just a 
good time to stop and wander down to the 
post box, deposit this letter and roll back by 

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Are You Going to College 

way of Maple Avenue, Appleton Place, etc., 
to wit : one-half mile. Then, to bed. 
So long. 
Yours sincerely, 

Harold James. 



[ 1<53 ] 



lEtgljtlj l^ttttr 



November i8th. 

•fPi EAR DICK :— I had read in the afternoon 
Irl paper, the day before your last letter 
reached me, that you had been made 
captain of the freshmen eleven. But I hesi- 
tated to rejoice at your being selected, because 
when it comes through a college reporter, 
there is many a slip between facts and news ; 
and I did not care to get in wrong. Now that 
the truth is brought to me by such good auth- 
ority as yourself, I take this opportunity to 
say "Bravo ! sehr gut !" 

As that information was only to lead up to 
the real object of your letter, we will imme- 
diately turn to that. You have the proper idea 
Dick, now that you are captain you want to 
handle them properly. If you do this little 
job nicely, the boys may honor you later with 

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Are You Going to College 

the captaincy which is spelt with a large C. 
That, however, is looking several years ahead. 
I am glad you wrote to me promptly, as I 
believe a few timely hints may make your road 
easier to travel. 

To begin with Dick, you are going to learn 
more foot-ball in a week now, than you did in 
a month heretofore. It will devolve upon you 
not only to solve your own problems; but 
those of all the other Freshmen. They will 
ply you with questions at every practice, and 
expect you to answer them off the bat. Take 
it from me, Dick, no man knows a subject 
thoroughly until he can teach another fellow. 
When you are called upon to explain anything 
to another party clearly, you cannot jump any 
uncertain points ; you must either acquit your- 
self with credit, or convict yourself in the eyes 
of your fellow men. Thus you will be forced 
to figure out ahead of time all conceivable 

plays, so that you may be there with a ready 
explanation when your subordinate asks you 

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Eighth Letter 

"Why or How"? It will not suffice to tell a 
beginner to make a certain play; you must 
also tell him the reason why it is done, and 
further how is the most efficient way to do it. 
As I have told you before, Dick, yours 
truly is not going to mix into the theory of 
any of the games at Hastings. You have 
your coaches for that ; but I do take the liber- 
ty, at your request, to give you some general 
points which you ought to find of value, 
whether you are handling a team as captain 
or coach. Now I believe I have told you 
before that nobody can make a successful 
coach to order. There are many rules that 
can be taught, but the ground must be fertile 
to produce results. This fertility in many 
cases goes back to birth. I mean that cer- 
tain men are born with an instinct and person- 
ality, which makes them good executives. 
How few these are, you will see in a short 
while, provided you only keep your eyes open. 

[165] 



Are You Going to College 

The essential thing to keep in mind, is that 
you must impress it on your squad, that when 
you are talking or explaining a move, nobody 
else is allowed to speak. In other words, 
absolute attention is neccessary, so that every 
one of the boys will clearly understand what 
you mean. No team can ever hope to be a 
success, unless every man understands each 
play exactly. Otherwise, we have a hesi- 
tancy, and the machine lacks a unity of action. 
It moves in jerks. If you have a notion 
that a fellow does not quite catch on to 
what you have said, then ask him to ex- 
plain the play to you. In other words, 
quizz him just like an instructor would 
his class- I suggest this, because there are 
many men who are afraid that the other men 
will consider them stupid, if they respond to 
your question "as to whether they understand" 
with "no." They will prefer to answer "Yes, 
I understand," hoping to pick up as they go 
along. 

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Eighth Letter 

Encourage your men to ask questions, but 
make them wait until you get through talking, 
when you should always give them an oppor- 
tunity to ask for enlightenment. A very good 
way to instruct, is to use the black-board, so 
that the moves can be closely followed. 
Another and in many ways a better way, is to 
have a set of chess men, and a large table, laid 
out like the playing field. All the men can 
then gather around that, and get a full bird's- 
eyeview of each play. This black-board and 
chess work is fine for rainy days. Try it, Dick. 

Another suggestion is that you give your 
men distinctly to understand, that the best 
man is going to get the position on the team, 
irrespective of his social standing or affiliation 
to any of the secret Societies. There ought to 
be Dick, for a successful team, only two quali- 
fications, first, that a man is a gentleman, and 
secondly, that he is the best player eligible for 
the team. If a few of our colleges, who have 
not been so successful in athletics lately, would 

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Are You G oing to College 

make the above their motto, some of the other 
teams would be compelled to look to their 
laurels. But I am drifting. — The best way to 
keep harmony is to encourage every man who 
feels that he is not getting a fair deal, to come 
to you privately for a little "pow-wow." 
Then you must honestly show him what is the 
trouble with his playing. Come right out and 
give it to him from the shoulder. If he is not 
man enough to take frankness when he asks 
for it, why then he is not suitable athletic 
timber. You will, I am glad to say, find that 
nearly all college men do not fear a hot shot, 
provided you play fair. Another very excel- 
lent plan is to call one of the delinquent's 
particular friends into consultation, and tell 
him what is what. By having these little 
talks, you can generally kill a germ of discon- 
tent, — due often to a misunderstanding right 
at the start, before it finds a comfortable 
lodging place with the family of your dis- 
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Eighth Letter 

satified candidate, and with his coterie of 
friends. 

Some coaches get the idea that they can do 
more effective work by the use of profane 
language. This is one of the greatest mis- 
takes on earth. First, because many men re- 
sent being treated in that way, and then again, 
if cursing is made use of continuously, it is 
about as productive of results as a horse-whip 
is when used incessantly on the poor animal. 
No doubt you have seen a farmer going along 
the road with a continuous "Gid-dap", — whip, 
— "Gid-dap" — whip. Why the horse does not 
even notice these regular taps. It takes an 
unusual lashing to make him give a stir. So, 
when a coach or captain punctuates all his 
talks with "blue language", it takes a lurid 
application before it strikes home. A quiet, 
forceful tone is the proper thing. Then some 
day, when all else has failed to awaken a real- 
ly lazy team into action, you can try a little 
"cussing" as a final chaser. If the team is 

[169] 



Are You Going to College 

really loafing, the effect will be electrical ; oth- 
erwise it does more damage than good. Dick, 
get along without it. You may apply this 
whip to the wrong horse, and smash the whole 
team. 

Also do not forget what I told you about 
men not being able to play a good game, unless 
their paraphernalia is in the best of shape. 
Of course, it must be worn in, but that under 
no conditions means worn-out, — as many play- 
ers seem to think- Just imagine your disap- 
pointment in a full-back, should you call on 
him for a try from the field, only to find that 
his shoe was split across the instep, and hence 
his chances for a successful drop reduced! 
Again, a loose shoe-string may trip one of 
your half-backs just as he has cleared the end 
for a touch-down. Don't for a minute think 
that because you have told the men to keep 
their uniforms in the best of shape, that they 
are going to do it. Not on your life ; a good 
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Eighth Letter 

coach must have his eyes everywhere all the 
time. 

Speaking of uniforms, reminds me of the 
fact that you will find some players, who are 
so ready to protect themselves against injury, 
that they actually encumber themselves. They 
make themselves slow by carrying extra 
weight. On the other hand, some men refuse 
to protect themselves at all, on the plea that 
they cannot play their game. Dick, I like to 
see a fellow have grit, but I refuse to break 
up a fine piece of mechanism by slamming it 
against the wall. There is a way of getting 
the best out of a man, not only for one or two 
days, but for the whole season. Not only 
that, but there are men who lose their nerve 
when injured once, and become less useful to 
the team afterwards. They lose confidence, 
and like a locomotive engineer once in an ac- 
cident, do not bring the express in on time. 

Therefore, pad your men judiciously, keep- 
ing an eye on the season of the year in which 

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Are You Going to College 

the contests take place, and the game that 
they are playing. 

Also teach your men to protect themselves 
from unnecessary injury, by showing them 
how to handle their bodies, so that opponents 
cannot get in any dirty work. Unfortunately, 
we still find coaches who instruct their "colts" 
how to put a man out. To be more particular 
"to knee",— "to spike",— "to elbow",— "to 
cross-check" him. A few words of advice 
will often prevent a muscle bruise and more 
serious injury. 

Another important thing to impress on your 
men, is that they must control their tempers. 
If an opponent finds out that he can tgg you 
on, you are lost. Some men try to worry a 
man into using his fists, and then quickly call 
the attention of the umpire or referee to the 
fact. I have seen the work of a whole season 
go for naught in a critical moment of the 
game, just because a good player could not 
control his temper under trying circumstances. 

[m] 



Eighth Letter 

Of course it is the green man who is liable to 
tumble the easiest. 

Now I come to what I consider the most 
difficult thing for a coach to master, and that 
is, the art of getting a man into shape. You 
will find out, Dick, probably by the time you 
are ready to graduate, that there are three 
elements which must be considered in making 
a player do his best. They are : his know- 
ledge of the game : his physical condition : and 
his mental attitude. My observation has been 
that his efficiency for any game or event, de- 
pends half on his knowledge of the game, one 
quarter on his physical condition and the re- 
maining twenty-five per cent, on his mental 
attitude. This division is made, because a 
man may be equipped with all there is to 
know about the theory and technique of a 
game, and yet be in such a wretched physical 
condition that he cannot deliver the goods. 
Again, being an expert player, and being in 
the best of trim, he will lose Just because he 

[173] 



Are You Going to College 

considers that the game will be too easy; or 
because he thinks that he has no chance to 
win. Many teams are beaten before the game 
begins, due to the fact that their opponents 
have big reputations. Others are nicely white- 
washed, because they cannot stand prosperity, 
and their heads begin to swell. So, Dick, do 
not spend all your time in perfecting plays, 
but take enough time to see that your men 
are in perfect shape ; and as a finishing touch, 
see that the boys have the proper mental 
attitude. Then when the whistle blows, they 
will cut loose and play better than they know 
how. 

To train men properly, you cannot follow 

any fixed rules. I do not care what • 

(fill in any expert you care to) has written on 
"how to train a team." Some fundamental 
rules are good to start in with, but remember 
that no great expert trains all his men alike. 
The temperament and habits of each man 
must be closely studied. The work that can 

[ 174 ] 



Eighth Letter 

be piled on one man would send another stale 
before the season is half under way- When 
in doubt, work a man too little rather than 
too much. Better have him under-trained 
than over-trained. If he goes really stale, 
you might as well throw up the sponge and 
give him a thorough rest. Speaking about 
rules for training reminds me of what hap- 
pened to a friend of mine, a member of our 
bar, some years ago. One day, having just 
been admitted to the bar, he met with a per- 
plexing problem of legal practice. He nat- 
urally took down the book, written by the man 
who had lectured to him on that particular 
branch of the law, and began diligently to 
search for the solution. After several days 
of the most careful perusal of said volume^ 
he finally wandered over to the office of his 
former professor, and greeted him with this 
remark : "Mr. P., there is a point in practice 
which I cannot find in your book." The re- 
ply was prompt and accompanied with a smile, 

[175] 



Are You Going to College 

"My dear man, that is more than likely ; if I 
had put everything I know in that book, I 
would not have had the pleasure of your visit." 
The desired information was imparted to my 
friend who later divided his fee with his 
former instructor. So it is with the expert 
coach or trainer ; he is not going to put all of 
his tricks on paper; and further, if he really 
wanted to, he could not give you the proper 
treatment for each case. He must see the 
subject before making a diagnosis. 

What the men need is good healthy food, 
and then sleep. Boarding house hash, and all 
it signifies will not build up a man to stand 
good physical exertion. I repeat sleep, and 
plenty of it. This does not mean sleep which 
begins at 2 A. M, and runs through until 
midday; but rather of the kind which tunes 
well with the proverb "Early to bed and 
early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy 
and wise." Make your chaps retire early, 
and let them sleep as long as they sleep sound- 

[176] 



Eighth Letter 

ly, or are called out for lectures; but do not 
let them roll around in bed when they have 
finished sleeping.. 

It is interesting to follow an experienced 

coach through the season with his team, and 
see how he gets them in the proper mental 
attitude. All coaches have different ways in 
which they work out the result, but the under- 
lying principle is the same. Nearly all colleges 
have a particular game which they consider 
the most important of the season. The team 
must reach the high-water mark on that par- 
ticular day. If an aggregation has been win- 
ning its largest games for several years in 
succession, it is bound to suffer from a swelled 
head which must be promptly deflated. You 
may have the best lot of men, who are abso- 
lutely devoid of all conceit, and yet somehow, 
there seems to be a thirty-fifth sense which 
refuses to let them do their best if they have 
won too often. So the losses out of the squad 
by reason of graduation are harped upon, and 

[177] 



Are You G oing to College 

magnified a hundred fold by the coach. The 
season after a man has left college, he sudden- 
ly finds out that he was a wonder, or the 
greatest utility man of his day. Then as the 
team continues its winning of games, some of 
the best men suddenly strain tendons, or have 
a thousand and one ailments which nobody 
ever heard of but a coach who has been at the 
business a long while. That is the reason 
that so many of the "sure enough" cripples 
always appear at the crucial minute and make 
phenomenal plays. 

Then again, while the team is being scared 
to death so as to give them the "never-die- 
spirit", the man most needed is being kept out 
of the scrimmage so as to store up energy. 
The more he begs to get in the game, Dick, 
the more h<^ is kept out for a while; so that 
when he breaks loose, you can't hold him. 
Last fall I saw a man, who had just recov- 
ered from water on the knee, kept on the side 
lines for two full weeks, so as to have him in 

[ 178 ] 



Eighth Letter 

proper shape for the big game. He was 
ready to go into two games before the big 
day; but the team could score without him, 
hence he had to watch the play from the 
side lines. He knew the game, ran through a 
few signals in practice and never got into a 
scrimmage- The coach knew that one bad 
whack on that knee would mean a two-weeks 
lay up. When the game of the season got 
under way, he was all over the field, and in 
every play. And what was even better, all 
the other men caught his spirit. 

A team should never be so discouraged by 
its coach as to get the impression that it is 
going to lose. The properly balanced atti- 
tude of mind of the men should be that they 
are going to win ; but that it will take all they 
have in their make-up to pull through. A 
team must go on the field full of confidence, 
but ready to do their "darndest", right from 
the start. 

If a team goes up against aa acknowledged 

[179] 



Are You Going to College 

superior aggregation, you will find the coach 
fortified with all kinds of rumors from friends 
who have seen the other team play, to the 
effect that they are overtrained, or that their 
former opponents have had a long disability 
list. The acknowledged weaker team has ev- 
erything to gain, and nothing to lose; hence 
when they do manage to make an impression 
on the big men, the chances are that they will 
play a better game than they know how. My 
observation is that a comparatively weak team 
will often play an exceptional game, just once 
in a season. 

Confidence displayed by a team, when it 
goes out on the field for a game, has a peculiar 
effect on its opponents. It is, therefore, well 
to tell your boys to enter the arena with a 
dash. Rapid display of energy, gives the aud- 
ience and their adversaries, the impression 
that Hastings' squad really expects to win. 

Another wise precaution, Dick, is to in- 
struct your men never to take any advice 

[180] 



Eighth Letter 

from anybody, except the coaches. You will 
find that there are always plenty of old grads 
on the side lines at a game, who are ready 
with hints on how to do it. These men have 
the best of intentions, but are either not up 
with the modern style of play, or they are not 
acquainted with the capabilities of the differ- 
ent players. You have your regular coach or 
staff of coaches, hold them responsible for 
your victory! The idea is not to drive the 
old grads away, and cause them to lose their 
interest in the team ; but the instructions must 
go through the proper channels. I know how 
much mischief can be done by advice to try 
this play or that, when a player has not tried 
it in practice. When I was at prep school, I 
lost a game once by a friendly hint, at the 
eleventh hour. It was this way ! I was play- 
ing on a Junior Hockey team, and just before 
I went on the ice for the game, I had a talk 
with, what was considered, the best goal- 
keeper playing in a senior league in that vie- 

[181] 



Are You Going to College 

inity. He showed me how he used his stick 
flat on the ice during scrimmages in front of 
goal. It looked good to me, especially since 
I knew he was using it with great success. 
Well, to make a painful story short, I, like 
the "green horn" that I was, started to use 
the play in that game. The result was a game 
by two goals for our opponents, which they 
would never have scored if I had stuck to my 
schooling. Never, Dick, try to teach your 
Imen a radically new thing in the last couple 
of practices. Let well enough alone. Finish 
up by getting them in the best physical and 
mental shape. 

After the team has taken the field, Richard 
no man, except the captain of your team, 
ought to confer with the captain of the oppos- 
ing forces, or with the umpire or referee. 
This may seem elementary to you youngster, 
but nothing looks worse than to see a whole 
team crowding around a referee when he 
makes a "bum" decision. The captain, if he 

[182] 



Eighth Letter 

is of the proper sort, can do more with the 
"ump", than a whole bunch doing the war 
dance. The rest of the boys ought to be get- 
ting together saving their wind, and figuring 
out the weak spots in the other team. This 
is discipline, without which you can have no 
respectful and respected athletic machine. 

"Getting the men on edge." This phrase 
you may have heard, but do you really know 
what it means? It is simply another charac- 
teristic way of saying "Getting the players 
keyed to the highest pitch," so that they will 
play their best. To do this properly, takes 
the consummate skill of an expert. Athletes, 
like good actors, are under a nervous strain 
before they go on for their parts. Now, Dick, 
if this nervous tension comes on too soon in 
athletics, then energy is used up before it 
is needed. To avoid this, a grad coach 
or trainer will keep the minds of his men off 
the game, until about an hour and a half be- 
fore the whistle blows. There are all kinds of 
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Are You Going to College 

tricks to do this ; but the first thing to do is 
not to let your men discuss the game. Then 
at the proper time, focus the full attention of 
your team directly on the contest, and rub it 
in by casual remarks well selected. Finally, 
then, just before the men are sent on the field 
to do or die, a good old-time ''Rah! Rah!" 
speech about college spirit, your Alma Mater 
and the disgrace of losing, will put them on 
edge, provided they have not been over- 
worked. 

There, Dick Dawson, you have the funda- 
mentals of handling a team in one short letter. 
It may not all be in logical order, but it's 
there. After you have read to your satis- 
faction, then put it away. Where? well, — 
where you keep those of your best girl, and 
when you clean out your furniture in your 
senior year, before turning the same over to 
your successor in dormitory, just peruse this 
letter once more, and write me whether I have 
shot well, or missed the target entirely. 

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Eighth Letter 

That lets me out for tonight, but I was just 
wondering what you are going to pick out 
next time for me to solve, — I confess I do not 
know, as I have in my opinion touched on 
about all the trials and tribulations of a Fresh- 
man- You can't hurt my feelings, so let's 
have it. 

When you write home, please enclose a 
good sprinkling of my regards. 
Yours sincerely, 

Harold James. 

P. S. How is your allowance holding out ? 



[185] 



JUM 13 1913 



